#azula deserved her own dragon
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Azula (with dragon)- ATLA fanart
#avatar the last airbender#avatar the last airbender fanart#azula fanart#azula#azula deserved better#azula deserved her own dragon#atla fanart#atla azula
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Homestead
Here is the fic in it’s entirety without all the readmores; thanks again to everyone who kept up with this! This fic wasn’t meant to happen at all and was all written from the top of my head the moment I included Niwa and the kids lmao, so if anything consider this a rough draft for Ozai and Niwa’s story. It’s not perfect and there are some inconsistencies but I’ll tend to those as the main story begins to develop more ^^
****
A healed Azula having her first violent outburst in years after finding Ozai in his hiding spot in the Earth Kingdom. She has him pinned, aiming her hand that is popping with charged lightning right at his heart.
‘Beg for my forgiveness.’ She seethes as Zuko panics behind her.
Ozai remains calm.
Years have passed, long enough to realize what he did to them.
He does not deserve to even beg. He closes his eyes.
Azula’s own eyes are overcome with tears. The lightning is at its zenith.
But she is not her father. She releases the lighting into the air with a curse.
****
Azula trembles. She could hit him; she could hurt him, but she remains frozen. Fire and lightning boil within her blood. She feels Zuko grab her arm, pulling her away clumsily before she can hurt him - or herself.
“Let go,” she hisses softly to her older brother. Ozai remains still, only moving to open his eyes and to heave a sigh, releasing his pent up breath and muscles. There’s an added layer to his relief, one that he dreads them learning - he must convince them to leave. “What I did to you-”
“Don’t,” Azula snarled. “Don’t you dare say a word. What do you know? What do you know of what you did to us?! Do you even care?!”
Ozai swallows; his gut turns. Azula is finding her footing again. She is no longer the girl that cowered at his raised voice. Nor is Zuko the worried, wet-behind-the-ears Fire Lord. They have both grown in stature and demeanor, and have left all traces of Ozai’s influence behind, leaving two grown royals in place of Fire Lord Ozai: a deplorable, angry warlord trying to live up to a legacy larger than the ego he boasted.
An ego he himself had shed - but it was the ego that had bruised, burned, and shunned these two children.
Zuko tried to keep Azula from growling into Ozai’s face, looking every inch like a dragon. The first daughter born to the Fire Nation Royal Family in three generations had more fight in her than every male that preceded her.
“I hope you rot,” Azula spat. “I hope you die alone,” she said, smoke billowing from her mouth.
Zuko, trying to keep Azula from doing something she might regret, hears a twig snap; he turns around.
Ozai’s stomach plummets as Azula continues to berate him.
“Chen?!”
A voice cuts through Azula’s train of thought; she realizes Ozai is grimacing and looking away from all of them. Azula turns, seeing that Zuko is already frozen in place.
A woman stands in the path leading from the wooded area. Small in stature, with thick brown hair and olive eyes. She carries a basket full of finds from the land around them, pears, apples, mushroom and herbs. A swathe of cloth wraps around her chest to carry something snug against her chest; wisps of a baby’s hair peek out of the bindings.
Next to her, a small girl stands, holding a jackalope that is poised to be that night’s supper. Despite her small stature, she bears an expression that is very similar to Ozai’s when he is aggravated; she has the woman’s thick hair, but it’s black like Ozai’s.
The woman puts the basket down on the ground, supporting the baby bundled against her.
“Chen, who are these people?!”
Zuko and Azula stare at Ozai, whose face has become a nauseous green.
****
“Chen?”
The name blurts out of Azula’s mouth as Ozai doesn’t meet her eyes. Instead, for the first time since their reunion, Ozai uses force, but only to move past Azula so he can meet the concerned woman, who rushes forward to touch Ozai’s shoulder. “What is happening?”
“It’s alright, Niwa,” he says.
Niwa looks at the visiting siblings cautiously. “I don’t buy that.”
“It’s fine; I promise. Come on; let’s get the kids inside and start dinner and we can sort this out.”
Niwa stares at him, concern written in her brow. “Chen.”
But Ozai offers her a smile before gently cradling the wispy hair of the newborn strapped to her chest. Ozai looks to Zuko and Azula. “Niwa is a skilled cook; her roast jackalope is the best this side of the Earth Kingdom. You’re welcome to join us.”
Azula’s lip curled. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Zuko remained silent. He turned to the small girl slowly making her way towards Ozai and Niwa, holding tight to the jackalope in her hands. Her eyes don’t deviate from Zuko; despite her timid demeanor, she does not back down. Once she walks past Zuko, she rushes towards Ozai, who allows her to cling to him.
Azula bristles.
“Come now,” Ozai announces, nodding towards the house. “Let’s talk about this over a good meal. Or if you don’t have the time, perhaps you can visit again sometime soon.”
Azula watches as Zuko joins her.
They watch Ozai’s hand gently lead the small girl into the home.
Azula stomps forward towards the house.
****
It was tense inside. The small girl bustled in the kitchen without a word as she skillfully prepared all of the smaller ingredients for dinner. Ozai had taken the jackalope outside to butcher it. Zuko had all but held Azula in place to keep her from going to find where Ozai kept butchering materials - she had half a mind to gut her father.
Niwa returned from hers and Ozai’s bedroom, having taken a few moments to nurse and change the baby. She joined her daughter in the kitchen as Zuko and Azula sat at the table.
Zuko noted Azula’s anger at boiling point. He knew it was time to make peaceful engagements.
“… I’m sorry for any concern miss… Niwa?” He said. Niwa turned to look his way and she nodded, still on guard.
“Do you two know Chen?”
Azula’s frown deepened.
Zuko folded his hands, shrugging.“Yeah. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him.”
Niwa folded her arms, leaning back against a counter. “Then maybe you can tell me why I met him in the sorry state he was in. Beaten and blacked out and half drowned in the forest out there. We’re a ways away from a town, so I wasn’t sure exactly how he got here.”
Zuko pondered for a moment. “That I can’t tell you.”
Azula’s laser-like gaze pierced through Niwa. “Looks like you’re not complaining that he’s around.”
Niwa met Azula’s glare. “No; I suppose not. I helped him get back on his feet, but for a while he couldn’t do much; whatever happened to him really took it out of him. When he recovered, he helped me rebuild my gardens that I’d used to feed both of us. It’s only been me for years so suddenly having two people took a bite out of my reserves.” Niwa smiled. “But then we became three, and now four.”
“Are you married?” Zuko asked. Niwa laughed.
“Not officially. Things just kind of happened; we’ve never really talked about it. When I realized I was expecting,” she said, patting her daughter’s head, “he just kind of said ‘all right then’ and stayed with me. He just… accepted it. He farmed when I couldn’t, learned how to cook, hunt, fish, butcher; he likes to stay busy. I’ve noticed when he doesn’t have a list of chores he becomes distant. When Chiyo here was born, we’re so displaced that getting a midwife was almost impossible for when the time came; and yet he never panicked; it’s like he runs on that chaos. Even so, he’s the one who’s put both of our children into my arms when they’ve arrived; he was the same way when Katsu arrived three weeks ago.”
Azula stood with a furious scrape of her chair, which clattered to the floor. Niwa jumped, but quickly moved to stand in front of Chiyo; but Azula wasn’t interested in moving towards them. Instead, she headed for the door that led outside, slamming it so loud that the trio still inside waited to hear if Katsu would begin crying.
“What did I say?!” Niwa asked as the pressure in the room deflated. She looked to Zuko. His eyes told her there was something he knew about this situation.
“You know him, don’t you?”
Zuko took a deep breath.
“My name is Fire Lord Zuko.”
Niwa’s mouth went slack as Zuko continued.
“That was my sister, Princess Azula.”
Chiyo held tight to her mother. Zuko thought he saw a smaller version of himself clinging to Ursa, who now resided back at the palace with her husband, Noren, and daughter, Kiyi. Zuko was slowly taking it in that he had more siblings.
Zuko looked to Niwa. “Chen isn’t his name.”
Becoming rigid, Niwa braced herself for more information.
“How do you know?”
Zuko felt a twist in his heart, almost as though he was cursing her with this knowledge she hasn’t asked for. “Because your children’s father is also my father; and my sister’s father.”
Niwa held tight to Chiyo. If her the man in her life was the father of the current Fire Lord, then…
The air escaped Niwa’s lungs as she stumbled back, holding onto the counter; out of her mouth escaped his true name: “Ozai”.
****
The door to the shed slammed open. Hanging on the walls were multiple hides, furs, and horns that had been harvested from the game in the woods.
Azula had no more tremble in her. Now she was painfully still as she loomed in the doorway. Ozai looked up as he quartered the jackalope for cooking.
He didn’t cower.
Azula walked inside, her eyes darkened with hatred as she approached his work table.
“I think you’ll like jackalope,” Ozai said. “It’s robust and sweet; but it takes a good hand to cook it or else it gets tough. It’s not as forgiving as komodo chicken.”
“I’m not here to talk about the stupid jackalope,” Azula grumbled. Ozai continued working.
“I figured. I just thought I might make conversation. Did you speak to Niwa?”
“Niwa? Your perfect little happy ending? With your perfect little babies?”
Ozai didn’t speak as he masterfully carved silverskin from a slab of meat.
Azula’s hands became fists. “It must be nice to just forget everyone you hurt when-”
“You think I forgot you and your brother?”
“You left!”
“You left me in that prison.”
“You were going to destroy the Earth Kingdom!”
“And you were going to be Fire Lord under my rule.”
“You used me.”
“You’re my child. I was giving your instructions.”
“You were going to make a CHILD the Fire Lord!”
“Funny… Zuko is only two years older than you and he’s Fire Lord. By the way, how is your uncle?”
“Don’t change the subject. Uncle has nothing to do with this.”
Ozai dunked a cleaver into a pot of water. He wiped his hands on a towel as he looked towards Azula as she continued. “You left your cell and found a whole new family.”
Ozai sighed, slinging the towel over his shoulder.
“You’re right. I did.”
Azula’s eyes flared, and she rushed forward to pin Ozai against the wall, multiple horns and antlers clattering down onto the floor.
“WHY WEREN’T WE GOOD ENOUGH?!” Azula screamed. “WHY WEREN’T-”
“I LEFT BECAUSE EITHER I DIED IN THAT CELL AS OZAI OR I DIED A DIFFERENT MAN.”
Azula’s screams withered. She stared at Ozai as he finally showed an emotion beyond indifference.
“I never meant to find what I have. I never set out to replace you and Zuko. That’s not the point of my life now. Niwa found me, and I… I had planned on leaving. I had planned on learning how to hunt and gather effectively before I struck back out on my own. But it… never happened.”
Azula’s grip on Ozai’s collar loosened.
Ozai felt the hand that had scarred Zuko tingle.
“… I found a life beyond the one that I carved from my desire to appease my father.”
Azula stepped back. Ozai finally looked to his daughter.
“What I felt the moment Chiyo was born, when my hands brought her into this world and all I wanted to do was protect her… it’s what I should have felt for you and Zuko. Back then I wanted to be a good father; but now I know that my own definition of a good father back then was something I never want to be again.”
Ozai stood up straight, ready to make his case known.
“Azula; I’m sorry.”
The words struck Azula’s heart like bramble.
“I’m sorry that I… I put so much pain and fear onto you. I owe you and your brother more words than I can ever say, and yet words don’t matter for what I’ve done. I’m sorry.”
Azula glowered at the former Fire Lord as he poured his heart out. She was all too aware of his false words to be convinced.
“I don’t forgive you,” she seethed.
Ozai’s expression remained neutral; he did his best to blink away the small, dewy tears forming on his eyelashes.
“A wise choice,” he said, his voice pitifully rough with the emotion he couldn’t hide. Azula watched as he returned to butchering the jackalope.
“I’m getting Zuko and we’re leaving,” Azula said. “We’re not staying for dinner, we’re not going to play nice. Whatever this is… I hope Niwa wakes up and realizes the mistake she’s made. I hope she takes those kids far away from you.”
The knife in Ozai’s hand finally fumbled as Azula spoke. He took a deep breath, letting her speak.
“And I hope everyone you meet from here on out sees you for who and what you truly are. A sad, pathetic excuse for a man.”
The silence that fell between them was nearly as suffocating as when Azula spit her barbed words. Ozai continued his chore as Azula turned away to leave.
But the door opened before she could reach it. Niwa stood, staring inside as Ozai peered up to her.
He could tell something was wrong.
“Niwa?” He asked. She stepped inside, looking at Azula.
“I’m sorry, may I speak with him in private?”
Azula shrugged. “You can do whatever you want with him. I’m getting my brother and leaving.”
“Wait, please-” Niwa reached for Azula but the princess avoided the woman’s grasp.
“Ask him. Ask him why we’re here-”
“I don’t have to.” Niwa said, looking at Ozai. “Your brother already told me.”
Finally Ozai’s calm shell fractured. He froze, looking at Niwa, who’s lips trembled. She opened her mouth to speak; a moment passed before she could find her voice.
“I’d had a feeling that my children were not your first, Ozai. But I could never really justify asking you such a personal question; even after all these years.”
Azula blinked; she stared at Niwa as Ozai realized he was caught.
Ozai cleared his throat. “… So now you know.”
Niwa’s eyes flooded with tears. “Your son’s eye.”
A painful silence passed before Ozai gripped the wrist of the hand that had caused that burn. “… Yes. I did that.”
But how? Niwa looked at Ozai, having seen what she believed to be every side of him over the past seven years. How he had cared for her, tended to her at her most vulnerable, made her believe he only had their childrens’ best interests at heart. How he held Chiyo and Katsu, and the ways he spoke to them and how Chiyo found true comfort in entrusting her father with her protection’; how Katsu was now beginning to recognize his father’s voice and had started to smile when he heard him.
But now she was learning that her childrens’ father was a man who continued the horrors of his fathers, passing all of that fear and hatred and pain onto his own older children.
“You told me your name was Chen. How long were you going to lie to me?”
“I never meant for it to be a lie,” Ozai quickly explained. “I… I was never expecting this to become my life.”
“… Are you happy here?”
“Niwa, of course I am. We have all of this, each other, our children; Niwa I’ve kept the name because I… I don’t… I’m no longer Ozai.”
“Camelephant dung,” Azula hissed. “Don’t even-”
“I’m not. That man is dead. I would bury him myself if I could.”
Niwa wrung her hands together. Ozai stepped forward.
“I would never hurt you, Niwa.”
Trembling, the woman looked up to him, unsure of what to believe. She opened her mouth-
“Chiyo! Chiyo!!”
The three in the shed jumped, turning towards the house as Zuko rushed along the path leading to the woods. Niwa bolted towards the Fire Lord, followed by Azula and Ozai.
“What happening?!” Niwa asked. Zuko pointed into the woods.
“Chiyo came outside to check on you, but then I saw her run into the woods; at first I didn’t think much of it since I’m sure she’s familiar here and I didn’t want to leave Katsu alone, but-”
Zuko pointed, and billowing from the trees was a ghastly blue mist.
****
Niwa wasted no time running into the wooded area to try and find her daughter - but just as soon as she ran inside, she came tumbling back into the clearing from between another set of trees. She realized what had happened and she darted back into the mist, only to emerge elsewhere in the clearing. She began to panic.
“Chiyo!!” She screamed as Ozai rushed to her. “Chiyo where are you?!”
No answer came, and Niwa turned to Ozai. “What… What are we going to do?!”
“Remain calm,” Ozai said, but Niwa’s fear quickly devolved into anger.
“You want ME to be calm RIGHT NOW, OZAI?!”
Ozai winced, getting used to hearing her say his real name. Zuko approached them, kneeling down to get a look at the mist.
“I’m guessing this isn’t a regular occurrence,” he said, watching the tendrils of smoke wisp around his hand.
“It’s not; this is the first time I’ve seen this,” Niwa said. Azula approached her, for once looking at her without the judgment of her father placed upon her.
“Do you have anything like a messenger hawk? It could fly above the trees.”
“It could, but how is anyone going to get through?” Niwa asked. Azula smiled.
“Again, they’re going to go over the trees.”
Niwa, confused, looked to Zuko, who smiled.
The town may have been a three-days trip on foot, but on an air bison, it was heavily reduced to twenty minutes. When Zuko and Azula had received information on the potential whereabouts of their father, it was Avatar Aang, along with his fiancee Katara, who had dropped them off and mentioned they would be back at nightfall if they hadn’t heard anything. Niwa offered parchment and a brush for Zuko to write to his friends.
Ozai appeared… nervous, to say the least, at the aspect of seeing the avatar again.
But at the rate things were going, it was possible that the only person who could fix quickly this was Aang.
The hawk took flight in the full, bright sunlight of the afternoon, and arrived as daylight became rustic and golden. The hawk was intercepted, and the letter was delivered to where the Avatar was staying - which wasn’t hard to find, as Appa was happily munching on some hay just outside of the parlor of an inn where Aang was conversing with the townspeople.
“Avatar Aang,” the delivery man greeted, “I have correspondence for you.”
Aang blinked, looking to Katara. “How does anyone know I’m here?” He asked, just as he unfurled the parchment. “Oh; it’s from Zuko.”
“Is everything alright?” Katara asked, immediately standing. Aang’s eyes continued to scroll through the letter.
“We need to go.”
Katara did her best to peel Aang away from his audience as quickly as she could. Within moments they were up in the air as the wind sifted through Appa’s fur. Katara scanned Zuko’s letter.
“Of all days for a spirit to show up,” she said.
“Good thing we stayed!” Aang smiled as they breezed through the atmosphere. They watched the forest canopy below them zoom by, and Aang shuddered.
“Yeah; something big is going on in there.”
“Look!” Katara pointed towards the mist streaking through the gaps of the leaves. “It’s some kind of smoke…”
“Let’s touch base with Zuko and Azula,” Aang said, flicking at Appa’s reigns to signal that they needed to hurry. Appa growled and quickened his pace, soon leading them to the small clearing where they’d dropped the royals off. They crested over the trees, seeing a small audience awaiting them.
As Appa landed, Aang and Katara joined Zuko and Azula, where a distressed Niwa’s fears were being subdued.
“Niwa,” Zuko started, “These are my friends, Avatar Aang and Master Waterbender Katara.”
Niwa sighed. “The Avatar, I can’t believe how lucky I am. I suppose being related to the Fire Lord has it’s perks?”
Aang looked at Katara, then to Zuko. “Related?” He asked. Zuko smiled nervously.
“So uhh; I need to tell you guys something.”
Azula peeked out from behind Zuko. “Our dad’s here.”
“O-Ozai?! Where? Is he the reason this is happening?!”
Niwa quickly intervened to quell the Avatar’s own worries. “No, no it’s not him! Please, my daughter; she’s lost in the mist!”
Katara maintained a hand on her waterskin. “Ma’am if Ozai is here then we need to consider him a threat; he escaped prison years ago and-”
“He’s my daughter’s father, he is NOT a threat!” Niwa snapped, her voice echoing over the livestock surrounding them.
Aang and Katara looked at Niwa, their jaws slack.
“The woods are usually peaceful. I’ve lived in this space my whole life. It was built and maintained by my great-great grandparents. I have never seen a spirit in my whole life. But for Chiyo to just run into the mist? I’m so worried; I’ve never had anything like this happen before.”
Aang heard the door to the house close. He became rigid as he recognized the form exiting the home.
Ozai.
The former Fire Lord walked down the path, holding something strapped to his chest. He noticed Aang, and even his own stride faltered.
Niwa turned to him. “Ozai! The Avatar is… Oh.”
It hit her that they had met.
Still, Ozai walked forward with Katsu wrapped against his chest. He looked at the younger man, now much taller. Nearly reaching Ozai’s own height.
“Avatar Aang,” he said. “If anyone can help, it’s you.”
Gripping his staff, Aang’s face darkened. “You’re lucky it’s a kid in there and not you,” he said, suddenly taken back by the fact that there was an infant strapped to Ozai’s chest as Katsu shuffled within the cloth.
Niwa, needing a distraction, took Katsu into her arms, holding him tight as she escorted Aang to the entrance of the forest. Along the way, he noticed some interesting carvings in some of the stones along the path.
“Those are airbender markings,” he said, noticing the swirl patterns. Niwa looked down, smiling.
“My grandfather laid this path after he married my grandmother. She started going blind after an infection, so he made a tactile path leading her around the grounds. Each path has a specific symbol. I didn’t know they were of Airbender origin.”
Aang opened his mouth to mention something, but he remembered there wasn’t much time to talk. Instead, he approached the entrance of the forest.
“I don’t know if any of the landmarks I know will be in there, but if you come across the well, there’s a compass at the base. It will help guide you,” Niwa said.
Ozai approached them, unwrapping the bindings used to hold Katsu. “I want to go.”
“Absolutely not,” Aang spat.
Niwa wrung her hands together as she pleaded. “Please, Avatar?”
“If anyone goes, it’s you,” Aang said.
Ozai frowned. “My son is too small to be without his mother for too long.”
“Can’t you change him?” Aang crossed his arms.
Ozai remained placid. “Of course; but I cannot feed him.”
Aang stuttered. “Maybe I should do this alone either way-”
“Chiyo will not recognize you,” Ozai said.
“Aang.” Zuko’s voice piped up. “I can go with you two.”
Azula stared at her brother in furious horror.
Aang wasn’t happy, but if Zuko was willing to back him up, he agreed to the situation.
“After this, you’re going back to prison, Ozai,” Aang announced. “I’ll see to it myself.”
Ozai looked into the Airbender’s stormy eyes; Aang then slammed his staff into the ground as his eyes and tattoo glowed an ethereal blue. With a wave of his hand, the mist opened, and the three men entered.
****
Azula, Katara and Niwa watched the mist envelop Aang, Zuko and Ozai. Niwa let out a shaky, bated breath as she gently bounced Katsu in her arms.
Katara looked to Azula, who seemed indifferent to the whole thing. Katara could notice the shielded way she stood and held her face - it was like when Katara had been reunited with her own father years ago, and the pain of his absence to fight in the war had resulted in her placing so much orphaned anger upon Hakoda. All of the feelings she didn’t have the time to sort through while helping to take care of the tribe, while traveling with Aang and Sokka and Toph and holding people together, she felt both displaced enough from Hakoda and trusting enough of her father to unload every negative, sour, complicated emotion she’d been harboring for years - and he didn’t push her away. The moment had allowed Katara to become more open with her father after the war, and the two were now on more even grounds than ever.
But a father that was absent for trying to help the world is different from being the soldier child of a man who held the whole war in his hands. Ozai may have only reigned for 6 years, but those 6 years were formative to Zuko and Azula. Sometimes Katara thinks about those months when Zuko chased her and Sokka and Aang, and she’s long-since realized that a parent burning their child for speaking out and then banishing them for an indefinite amount of time was cruelty beyond measure - but back then she was too young to understand, as was Zuko. But Azula herself had no idea the pressures and weights to being Ozai’s blessed favorite. Azula, having prided herself on the stature of Ozai’s talented, preferred child who held the burdens of her father so gracefully on her head, yet her own young mind, no matter how brilliant, couldn’t foresee how Ozai’s teachings would lead to Azula to sequestering herself out of paranoia before challenging Zuko to an Agni Kai while on the cusp of being crowned Fire Lord while Ozai was out demolishing what was soon to be the Old World, reducing it to ash to allow a New World to be reborn.
Katara noticed Azula’s detachment from the situation, and she approached the princess with caution.
“You don’t have to walk on eggshells, Katara,” Azula said without looking at her as she heard the decorative beads on Katara’s clothing rattling upon her presence.
“… I’m sorry. I just wanted to check on you.”
Azula’s face remained neutral, although Katara could see the effort being made to do so. Azula’s crossed arms tightened.
“I’m fine.”
With a nod that meant Katara knew she wasn’t going to get much more out of Azula, she backed away, thus moving to approach Niwa, but not before turning to look at the grounds. The house ahead of them was large, something she would expect to contain an entire family. Several other small buildings surrounded the area, like a shed nearby, a chicken coop, a barn for the lion-rams, every hybrid pig Katara had ever seen, and several ostrich horses. It was a handsome property; bright and colorful with flowers at the base of the mountain, and a ravine that wrapped between the land and said mountain.
Turning back towards Niwa, who bundled Katsu up in the wrapping blanket as twilight approached, Katara was taken back at the image of the woman as she lovingly spoke to her newborn. She also felt immense dread, wondering if this woman knew the extent of what Ozai had done to so many people. What if Chiyo and Katsu were just as doomed as Zuko and Azula? What if Ozai returned to his old ways of pitting his children against each other?
“… Miss Niwa,” Katara began, “how are you doing?”
Niwa sighed, holding Katsu up to her shoulder, gently patting his back. “Better than I was, but still… not knowing is the worst. I’m just… I’m so scared for Chiyo. I trust her knowledge of the woods; she’s played in them so many times before on her own, but this? I’m so scared of what this could do to her.”
Katara nodded. She looked at little Katsu, wondering if maybe he resembled Zuko or Azula when they were that age.
“I can’t help but ask… but… what convinced you to… to be with Ozai?”
Niwa closed her eyes. Azula’s eyes locked onto the other women as she maintained her distance.
“Nothing ‘convinced’ me. I found a man who needed help, thus I helped him. Things happened from there. He told me his name was Chen.”
“He lied to you as well?” Katara asked. Niwa shook her head.
“It’s not… it’s not like that.”
“He did.” Azula seconded. “He lied to you to protect himself. Look where it’s gotten him. A woman who will defend him and two new, perfect little children. Only this time he won’t mess up.”
Niwa’s already strained patience was waning. “You take me for a fool.”
“Oh you bet I do,” Azula scoffed.
Katara did her best to place herself between them, trying to maintain civility. “Let’s not get too riled up. We’re here to make sure Chiyo returns to safety-”
Azula finally stepped forward. “Which means removing Ozai.”
Niwa’s stomach dropped.
Azula maintained her stance. “At all costs.”
“No. I won’t allow it,” Niwa insisted. Azula pointed towards the forest.
“You’re so afraid of losing your children yet you’ll allow that monster near them?!”
“He has never hurt them!” Niwa shouted. Azula doubled down.
“You’ve seen my brother’s eye! He had no problem doing that to him and shoving him off! For THREE YEARS! And he had no problem raising me to believe that what he did to Zuko was justified! The war was one thing, but he pitted me against my family so I believed he was the only one truly on my side, and then what happened? He abandoned me! Do you know how long it’s taken me to understand what actual affection looks like? What it’s meant to feel like when my mother holds me so that I don’t think she’s using that as some kind of emotional bait??”
Katara was quick to act in intercepting Katsu as Niwa’s anger rose. Niwa handed her son to the waterbender as she stalked Azula’s way.
“And I am sorry, Azula. I am so sorry for what you two went through. I can’t imagine all of the pain and horror you must feel reliving what happened.”
“No.” Azula growled. “You can’t. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be so alone-”
“I’ve BEEN alone, Azula. Before I found Ozai I was alone for years! I’ve had family! I had a wonderful family! My grandparents, both of my parents, and guess what? They have all DIED! I have been here because it’s my home; it’s all I have. When I found your father I didn’t think to myself ‘oh look, I wonder if this man is former Fire Lord Ozai and I should leave him for dead’, no! I found an injured man here in a place of little threat and I wanted to help him, because that’s what my homestead is about! I never believed him to be Ozai!”
“Well now that you know, then you’ll understand when we take him back to the Fire Nation.”
Niwa didn’t budge. “Over my dead body.”
Katara stepped back. Azula’s mouth ticked a smile.
“Excuse me?” Azula laughed.
Niwa approached Azula with every word. “Over. My. Dead. Body. You are not taking Ozai. You are not touching him. When your brother and the Avatar return, I am giving you all my thanks in every way I can, but you are not removing him from my life, nor that of my childrens’ lives.”
“He’s a monster!” Azula shouted. Niwa shook her head.
“Azula; if you can change your perceptions, why can’t he?”
Feeling the back of her neck bristle, Azula stood rigid in furious horror.
Katara stood at the ready, holding a baby in one arm and keeping her other hand at her waterskin.
Azula’s lip curled.
“You want him so bad? Fine. Maybe I’ll talk Zuko into building a wall around this forest, so you all can stay locked up and so SO happy together.”
Katara shook her head at Azula, who ignored the waterbender. Niwa, her arms crossed, tilted her head.
“I thought you said you were different? That sounds an awful lot like an old Fire Nation tactic if you ask me.”
Azula’s fists shook. “… I’m… I’m not like that anymore. I’m not like him!”
“I know you’re not Azula; but in the same way, you’ve both changed,” Niwa said. “I just want you to understand that he’s come a long way. Just like you have; and I don’t intend to let him go after I’ve seen the man he’s become. I trust the man he has become. Just like Katara is here with you.”
Azula looked towards Katara. “What are you talking about?”
Niwa continued. “A waterbender here as a friend to the princess of the Fire Nation? After everything you’ve told me? You can change and build new friendships, but he cannot?”
Azula replayed the moment Katara chained her to that grate after besting her during Sozin’s Comet. But she said nothing.
But she didn’t need to as her charged posture diffused, and she stepped back, and away from the argument.
Katara waited and allowed Niwa to turn her way, taking Katsu back into her arms. The waterbender didn’t say anything at first. She knew enough about Ozai to hate him. She’d also once hated Zuko and Azula.
Katara herself was the reason Azula wasn’t crowned as Fire Lord. And yet here they were as… well… maybe not the best of friends, but by now they were on positive terms of acquaintanceship through Zuko, and through Azula’s continued work towards a healthier life. Today had been the darkest turn Azula’s mentality had taken in well over a year, and it worried Katara, but she also understood.
But she couldn’t help but wonder, as she watched Niwa defend Ozai - the man that Katara’s fiance defeated - maybe… if his children had achieved a life beyond the goals of the old Fire Nation… maybe Ozai had achieved that too.
Katara listened to Niwa talk to Katsu as he cooed.
“Don’t worry; daddy will be home soon with sissy. I promise,” she said, stroking her son’s wispy hair.
****
“Chiyo!!” Aang called out. “Chiyo where are you?!”
“Chiyo!” Ozai shouted, following Aang’s voice. “Come on! Let’s go home!”
Zuko felt something in the pit of his stomach as Ozai said that.
“Zuko, Azula! It’s time to go home!” Ozai would call as their feet were coated with sand and saltwater, and as they begged for more time to keep constructing their lopsided palace on the beach.
Zuko looked at his father’s expression as he waited to hear Chiyo’s voice. The concern knitted in his brow was something Zuko had never seen - or at least if he had seen it, time hadn’t done the memory much justice.
“Does she come out here often?” Aang asked. Ozai nodded.
“These woods have been peaceful since before Niwa’s time, from what I understand. Chiyo has played in here for hours on end without problem. I taught her how to swim in the fishing pond up ahead.”
Aang looked towards Zuko, who maintained a visage of neutrality. The Avatar fell back a bit, walking next to Ozai.
“… So Niwa found you in this forest?”
“That’s what she’s told me,” Ozai said. “I was traveling at night, through a forest near where we fought. Next I remember I was waking up in her home.”
Aang listened to the atmosphere around him. “There’s a lot of uncertainty around here. When we flew over, I could sense a large cluster of spirits.”
Ozai hummed; Aang could hear the concern laced within it. “I’ve always figured this place had… something within it. For as long as it’s been peaceful, even at night, I guess I rationalized it as some form of… guardian. Maybe I was wrong.”
“I don’t think that’s wrong, necessarily,” Aang said. “But, if there’s some kind of guardian, it’s being overpowered right now; and it feels angry.”
Zuko’s hands became fists, but not out of his own anger. “… You don’t think it’s here because of Azula and me, do you?”
Aang looked back, shrugging. “Spirits can follow emotions and intentions. I… I suppose it’s possible.”
Zuko felt a weight in his gut. He looked towards Ozai, who didn’t look back to Zuko.
Old fears resurfaced for Zuko; he hadn’t felt this wave of uncertainty around Ozai in years.
“Ah; there it is,” Ozai said as they approached the well. Aang stopped, getting a good look at it’s construction.
“That…that looks like one of the wells back at the temples.”
First the carvings in the rocks, and now the well’s architecture. Aang touched the stone, impressed with the craftsmanship.
Ozai looked out to the different branches that splintered off from the clearing. “Chiyo!”
Aang looked up from inspecting the well to look at Zuko. The young Fire Lord watched his father shout for his child, able to maintain a poise he once never thought possible as he yearned for scraps of his father’s approval. But he also felt guilty for potentially leading to this search.
“Dad,” Zuko’s voice broke through the ringing silence when no one answered his call. Ozai looked at his eldest child as he reached out, hesitating, but he still managed to touch Ozai’s shoulder. “We’ll find her. I promise.”
Ozai regarded Zuko with an air of surprise. The son who once told Ozai to his face that he was abandoning everything their family stood for and trained the Avatar in the ways of firebending just to dethrone his father was there helping him find a part of his ‘new family’.
The older man could see how much Zuko was truly beginning to resemble him, and it made his stomach turn as he remembered how much suffering he put upon Zuko for his supposed weaknesses - when those ‘weaknesses’ were traits he had inherited from his father. Traits Ozai wanted stamped out because of that very reason. If he had to let go of all of the tenderness in his heart to succeed in his endeavors, then Zuko had to do the same.
And yet it is Zuko that now sits upon the throne, having heralded a new start with care and compassion the likes the Fire Nation and the world hadn’t seen in a century.
And it took too many years and a new family for him to come to even begin to understand how much of himself he’d never gotten to know by denying himself tenderness with another person.
Ozai finally managed to answer his son by placing his hand over Zuko’s on his shoulder.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice gruff with overflowing memories and feelings. He cleared his throat, looking at Zuko, into his eyes that were no longer wide and pleading and unsure, but were now more sure than even Ozai was these days. He tried to smile for some levity; and for something he didn’t realize was important to say until the events unfolding. “You’ve really… You’re…”
The words couldn’t register You’re a good kid? You’ve come a long way? How so? The man who had bucked the mould Ozai tried to fit him into was now something completely different indeed. Would telling him he’d grown into a good man even mean something coming from Ozai?
Instead, Zuko offered another smile.
“It’s alright. We can talk about it later.”
Aang watched from behind, unsure as Zuko walked ahead.
“Aang,” Zuko said, “Can you sense anything from here?”
Aang closed his eyes, opening them as they began to glow. He slammed a hand onto the ground, and a glow of energy burst through the grass that only he could see. Zuko and Ozai stumbled back as the gust of wind nearly knocked them over, but Aang, as his eyes dimmed, pointed to a spot towards the north; as the glow dissipated, he found a set of small footprints.
“There! She’s gone north!”
But just as they prepared to take off, Ozai felt something grab his ankle. He fell onto his stomach as he was dragged backwards. Zuko turned to see his father being pulled by something he couldn’t see - while Aang saw a translucent hand reaching out, pulling Ozai away. A spirit that was hiding in the well was the culprit.
“We’ve found him!”
A cavalcade of noise deafened Aang; Zuko watched his friend try to block his ears as he winced.
“Justice!”
“Justice for our lands!”
“Praise to the Avatar for leading us here!”
“Now we need to remove the woman and the other parasite; then this land will be ours.”
Zuko rushed forward, grabbing Ozai’s hands to keep him from being dragged into the well. The two latched onto each other, and Zuko, for once, witnessed primal fear in his father’s eyes.
Aang found his clarity through the noise; he also darted towards the well, pulling Ozai out of the grip of the spirit.
“Avatar!!” It screeched. “Let us take this beast from this world!”
“No!” Aang shouted. “This isn’t the right way!”
“Your way didn’t work! Your human justice led him back here to infest this land!”
Aang and Zuko managed to pull Ozai to safety, and Aang created a barrier of spiritual energy around them.
“What is it you want?” Aang shouted. The spirits howled and screeched.
“On the day the comet painted the sky crimson, the Fire Lord set ablaze to our homes!”
“We have wandered countless eves since!”
“We nearly rid ourselves of him years ago! When we came across him wandering, just like us! We forced him to feel our rage! Our pain!”
“We have been trying to find him since, but something has kept us from entering this forest.”
“But we have managed to distract it by luring the older of the parasite’s children into the forest; He is busy keeping It safe.”
Aang, confused, looked around as the clearing continued to darken with encroaching spirits. “He?”
“His spirit feels much like yours. But regardless, Avatar. We are ready for our justice!”
“This isn’t justice!” Aang shouted. Behind him, Zuko helped Ozai to his feet. “This is revenge! And revenge only begets more revenge and bloodshed!”
“PERHAPS BLOOD IS WHAT WE WANT!”
As the sun set, the trees began to sway as the spirits convened, and they amassed together to create an amalgamation of rage and desolation, appearing in the form of a massive, armored spidersnake.
****
She turned towards the burst of energy that had erupted towards the south.
The other with her, carrying a lantern that glowed with a hazy, white fire, hummed to himself.
“Did you feel that, Chiyo?” He asked, looking at the small girl. She nodded, not looking to him; instead he watched her face where the energy was coming from, her little form frightened, but not shying away from the predicament. “He is here as well… I should go say my hellos. It’s been a hundred years, after all.”
Chiyo looked up to the older man, able to see the grass through his non-corporeal form; but after all this time of knowing him nothing about him frightened her.
“What happens if I don’t know what to do?”
“It’s alright, Chiyo. You won’t be alone. But we must make haste. Don’t worry. I will be right by your side.”
Beyond the trees, they could hear the screech of the spirits as they engaged in a heated confrontation with the Avatar, the Fire Lord, and the man responsible for displacing them.
“AVATAR! YOU WOULD DEFEND THIS BEAST? AFTER YOU PROMISED HE COULD DO LONGER CAUSE DESTRUCTION?”
Aang dodged one of the spidersnake’s piercing legs as it jammed into the ground.
Aang faltered with an answer as he landed on one of the spirit’s legs.
“I won’t stand for acting on vengeance when the other hasn’t committed any other crimes!”
“HE IS COMMITTING A CRIME BY BEING HERE! YOUR MORTAL SENTENCING DID NOT WORK! YOU ALLOWED THIS CREATURE TO ESCAPE HIS CONFINES AND INVADE OUR LANDS! AGAIN!”
Ozai dodged one of the legs as it prepared to slice him upon impact.
“Let me speak!”
“IT WILL ALL BE LIES!”
Another leg stabbed the ground. Ozai looked towards Zuko, who was unsheathing his swords; even as a master firebender, he found comfort in bringing these weapons along with him.
He turned towards Ozai.
“Dad!” He shouted, tossing one of the swords Ozai’s way.
“YOU WOULD CAUSE MORE BLOODSHED!!”
“Just the same as you!” Ozai barked. Aang, from up high, began to panic, and he descended towards the others.
“No! Wait this isn’t the way!”
“Then what do you want us to do?!” Zuko hissed as he tried to keep his eyes on the massive spirit.
Ozai lashed out, slashing at a leg that passed by them, trying to stab it where the armor was weak.
“OZAI!” Aang shouted.
“WHAT?! MY FAMILY IS IN DANGER!”
“THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE OF YOU!”
“I’M WELL AWARE OF THAT!”
“YOU CAN’T KEEP TRYING TO USE VIOLENCE, IT WON’T SOLVE ANYTHING!”
Ozai glowered at Aang. “Really? Maybe you should have killed me when you had the chance, boy. Then maybe this wouldn’t be happening.”
Aang’s mouth bobbed, but he quickly became furious. Zuko looked between the two. He had once insisted to Aang that he would need to kill Ozai; it would be the only way to truly stop him. But Aang didn’t, citing the importance of his heritage and views of mercy. But… Ozai had indeed escaped his prison sentence, and he had returned to the Earth Kingdom, and now the spirits of the lands that were scorched by his fire were seeking their retribution, and an innocent family was in danger.
Well; mostly innocent family. Zuko wouldn’t lie about how he wondered how Niwa could care for his father; how he wondered what kind of man she found within him.
“Zuko! Behind you!”
Aang blasted a gust of air towards the spirit before it could slam a sharp leg down upon Zuko.
“ENOUGH!” The spirit shrieked. It doubled down and charged at Aang, flinging him into the tree canopy. It turned towards Ozai. “You have chosen this land, and thus the bones of you and your family will decorate it!”
Ozai held onto the hilt of the sword with a grip that turned his knuckles white. “You won’t touch my family.”
The spirit cackled. “Oh? Let’s make things interesting.”
A leg slammed down, catching the fabric of Zuko’s tunic. The spirit rounded, tackling Zuko to the ground, and it reared back to bite down into Zuko’s ribs. The Fire Lord screamed as the pincers buried into his abdomen; the poison seared and stung his flesh and exacerbated the wound.
Ozai watched as Zuko howled.
Yet he never called for his father, who was right there.
“Papa!”
But another voice did.
“Mama! Papa!”
Chiyo’s voice was heard over Zuko’s screams.
“ZUKO!” Aang’s voice entered the noise as he returned to the fray; and Ozai once more grabbed the sword Zuko had lent him… Zuko had lent him a means of protection - which Ozai now needed to use for him in return.
“ZUKO!” Ozai screamed along with Aang, and he charged after the spirit. “Avatar! Give me a lift! I’ll-”
“No! I won’t let you kill it!”
“IT’S KILLING ZUKO AS WE SPEAK!”
Aang faltered, but Ozai didn’t. He reeled back and, with all of his might, he sliced through one of the spirit’s legs. It screeched in agony, finally releasing Zuko. Aang was quick to Zuko’s side as the spirit stumbled away from him. Ozai grabbed Zuko’s other sword, slashing at the spidersnake, eagerly cutting any tender part of it’s body.
Zuko fought for air, his mouth rendered dry from the effects of the poison. Aang was quick to pull some water from the well, and with techniques Katara had taught him, he began trying to heal the wound.
“VILE CREATURE! YOU BRING MORE PAIN!” The spirit screamed as Aang heard another leg thud to the ground.
“AVATAR! YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN! YOUR BLINDNESS AND BIAS LEAD TO MORE DESTRUCTION!”
“No!” Aang cried out. “You chose this path! You have chosen revenge to deal with your pain!”
“MY PAIN BROUGHT ABOUT MERCILESSLY BY ONE OF YOUR OWN HUMANS! I ASK RETRIBUTION AND I RECEIVE PAIN!”
“You threatened me and my family!” Ozai shouted.
The spirit wobbled; seeing no other way to end this scuffle, it’s body rattled with determination.
“Perhaps it should no longer be a threat. You will know my pain.”
Even missing two legs, the spidersnake charged towards the home.
“NO!!” Ozai screamed. He looked towards Aang and Zuko.
“Zuko still isn’t healed!” Aang said. “I’ve removed the poison but-”
Ozai rushed forward, removing his shawl and pressing it against the wound.
Zuko lay bleeding; but Ozai’s family was in danger…
But Zuko was Ozai’s family… As much as neither were ready to admit it in full just yet.
Ozai’s face twisted; his method hadn’t worked. It had only hastened the problem.
“Go, Avatar. Please; help my family.”
Aang nodded, taking to the sky and flying back towards the homestead.
In the enveloping silence, Ozai was panicking; he had to get back, but what about Zuko?
“Zuko; can you hear me?” Ozai asked; gently jostling the Fire Lord. Zuko moaned; the poison had taken every bit of energy out of his body.
“He needs this.”
Ozai jumped as a voice made itself known from behind. A cloaked man… another spirit, judging by the way Ozai could see through him… he offered an herb to Ozai.
“What do I do?” Ozai asked, accepting it.
“Extract the oils with your palms; it will also warm it up, activating it; then apply it to the wrists, throat, chest; it will absorb and help him.”
Ozai quickly took to smashing the herb between his palms; in time creating a medicated-smelling oil, and he began dabbing as instructed.
“Do you know this man?” The spirit asked. Ozai felt how Zuko’s scar had even wrapped around to the back of his neck as he administered the oil.
“…This is my son.”
“I see,” the robed man said. “Quite a nasty scar on his eye.”
Ozai didn’t look back at him; instead he massaged Zuko’s wrists, hoping the herb would take effect soon.
“That must have hurt. Did you find the man who did it?”
Ozai stopped; he looked back to the cloaked man-
Who was gone.
A groan; a grimace.
“Dad?” Zuko asked. Ozai jumped, pulling Zuko to sit up.”What happened? Did we fend it off?”
Ozai shook his head. “No; can you stand?”
“I… I think so.”
“If you can stand, then I can help you.”
****
Aang flew as fast as the currents could take him. He kept tabs on the spirit as it charged towards the homestead; he hoped the others weren’t too close to the entrance of the forest.
He found a strong wind current, and he charged through the sky, able to see the clearing as he bypassed the raging spirit. He crested the canopy, and found Katara, Azula, and Niwa waiting nearby.
“GET OUT OF THE WAY!! GO TOWARDS THE HOUSE!!” Aang screamed; but it wasn’t long until the spirit burst through the trees.
Katara was quick to act, and she used the nearby ravine to create a wall of ice to contain the spirit. Azula shoved Niwa towards the house and ran to join Katara and Aang.
“Where’s Zuko?” Azula asked Aang as he landed.
“He’s in the woods with Ozai-”
“YOU LEFT HIM WITH OZAI?! ALONE?!” Azula screeched as smoked poured from her mouth. Aang winced, but he was distracted by the scraping sounds of the spidersnake’s sharp legs clawing at the ice. Katara continued to add layers of ice to the wall, but the spirit was chipping away too fast for her to keep up.
“It’s going to escape!” She shouted. Aang looked back to Niwa, holding Katsu as she watched in fear, and he bent giant split in the earth to keep the spirit from reaching her. Niwa watched in awe as her land was broken in half, and water from the ravine crashed into the gap.
“Okay,” Katara said, still adding layers of ice. “What’s the plan?”
Aang joined her, also layering on to the wall as Azula joined them at the ready. Aang nervously laughed.
“Uhh that’s a good question.”
“You don’t have a plan?!” Azula asked. Aang pouted at her.
“Oh like you two have been making one while we’ve been in there?!”
Azula pouted back and crossed her arms, remaining silent.
“I don’t want to kill it,” Aang said. “It’s suffered enough; but harming others won’t fix it’s suffering.”
“What does it want?” Katara asked.
“It wants Ozai and his family dead,” Aang said.
Azula hmm’d. “I don’t see the problem with that.”
“Azula!” Katara admonished, but Azula was quick to snap back.
“Do you know what it’s like?! To have gone through so much because of him and suddenly he’s so much happier without you around?!”
Aang helped add another layer to the ice wall as the spirit screamed in frustration.
“I don’t think that’s what happened, Azula.”
“HE NEVER WOULD HAVE HELPED ME IF I WAS IN THIS SITUATION! AND YET HE’S IN THAT FOREST LOOKING FOR HIS NEW PERFECT LITTLE BABY WHILE WE DO ALL OF HIS DIRTY WORK FOR-”
“OZAI STAYED BEHIND BECAUSE ZUKO’S HURT. I’M DOING MY JOB AS THE AVATAR, OZAI IS HELPING YOUR BROTHER.”
Azula went silent, but she appeared as though she could shoot lightning from her eyes.
“Azula,” Aang said; “Would you let a woman endure the pain you felt just to make yourself feel better? I know you wouldn’t; you quit that cycle a long time ago. You have to live it now. And not giving in to the pain you’ve endured sometimes hurts more than the memory of it.”
Azula turned her head, tears in her eyes.
“Think about Kiyi! You have another little sister and brother! If you put that same harm on them, what would that say about everything you’ve learned? And if Ozai has learned how to stop acting out on his own anger, then why be mad at that?”
“Because Zuko and I suffered!”
“But it’s not Niwa’s fault; nor is it Chiyo’s or Katsu’s. Your suffering isn’t your fault,” Aand said, looking at the spirit, “But enacting on that anger to hurt others out of justice… sometimes it’s only revenge; and the cycle continues. And one day they’ll see it as the right thing to keep hurting other. Is that the legacy you want, Azula? After everything you’ve been through?”
For a moment, the only sounds were Katara and Aang adding water to the ice wall to contain the spirit.
Azula took a breath. “So… what should we do with this?” She asked.
Aang looked to Katara. “We can’t just keep holding it… we have to do something to stop it.”
“And at what point do we put it down?” Azula asked, stretching her arms as her hands began to sizzle.
“… We don’t.”
Azula sighed. “Katara he’s impossible.”
Katara smiled towards her fiance. “Yeah; I know.”
The ice finally broke, and the spirit lunged forward. Aang leaped into the air as Katara used the water to skate out of the way. Azula bent a wall of fire to try and herd the spirit away, but it was almost too fast, and it kept up with the blaze as it extended. Azula cursed and focused her powers on her feet, and she burst forward, using her flames to hover and move quickly.
Niwa watched in horror as part of her homestead was lit ablaze. Even from her distance she could feel the heat from the fire. Her livestock bleated and clucked and screeched in fear as she held tight to Katsu.
She wondered why only Aang had returned from the forest; until she saw two figures at the entrance of the trees.
Ozai helped Zuko stumble along, the two of them taking in the sight of battle.
Zuko tried to stand, but he was still too weak. Ozai helped him sit as he he could see Niwa and Katsu were safe.
But there was still no sign of Chiyo.
Holding tight to Zuko’s swords, Ozai pondered his best course of action.
“Dad,” Zuko said, and Ozai knelt down to listen. “You should go back in and try to find Chiyo while it’s distracted.”
Ozai stared at him. “And leave you here?”
Zuko laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time. I’ll be fine.”
The words stung Ozai, but he was right.
“Besides,” Zuko said, “I’m a better solo fighter.”
“And yet you’re here with all of these people who care about you,” Ozai said.
Zuko smirked. “I lucked out. They helped me realize how much worth I had when I was blind to it.”
Ozai’s throat tightened. “I’ve… gone through a similar situation recently.” Ozai said. “I just didn’t realize it until today.”
Zuko shook his head, weakly pushing his father.
“Then go; go find her,” he said. Ozai stood, and Zuko gripped Ozai’s hand on one of the swords, ensuring he had a good hold on the hilt. “Don’t fail another one of your kids. Or I’ll make sure you see that prison cell again.”
Ozai nodded. “As his majesty commands.”
Ozai rushed back into the woods, and Zuko weakly tried to stand, but his legs weren’t strong enough. His presence caught the eye of Katara.
“ZUKO!” She shouted, skating his way with her water ribbon. She landed in front of him and crouched down. “Where is it?” She asked, preparing her water as he showed her the wound. She was quick to begin healing it as he wrapped an arm around her for support.
“I told dad to go back in and look for Chiyo while you have the spirit distracted.”
“You haven’t found her yet?”
“No. I’m starting to worry.”
“… Do you think he’ll find her?”
Zuko looked back to the fight raging in front of him. “I want to hope so; for all our sakes. I don’t want to think of my father’s bloodlust going against this spirit’s. If we led this thing here and something’s happened to Chiyo, I don’t think we’ll have seen the last of my father’s anger.”
****
He raced through the woods, feeling a panic he wasn’t used to. Even when Chiyo and Katsu had been born, he wasn’t this afraid.
Only upon seeing Zuko and Azula and the reflections of the man he used to be, and now Chiyo’s sudden disappearance did Ozai feel his eyes grow hot with tears as his frustration built.
So many emotions seemed to pile on top of each other, one after another.
Perhaps he wasn’t meant to be a father; he was barely even a good son. But he tried so hard…
‘All I wanted was for you, my father, to love me!’
Zuko’s words pierced his mind, as did the image of Azulon’s emotionless face.
Ozai shook his head and he continued back down the path.
“CHIYO!” He screamed.
What if he never found her? What if she was gone?
‘Spirits can follow emotions and intentions-”
Aang’s answer to Zuko’s question earlier rang in his mind. Ozai had displaced those spirits… if they’d arrived following any animosity from Zuko or Azula, or even following the Avatar’s power…
‘I’ve taken away your bending-”
Ozai’s defeat at the hands of Aang had caused him so much grief… and yet his time here with Niwa, away from the palace, away from the place that had created his anger and self-loathing… She had given him something new.
The early days when she expected nothing back from him for saving him, and he stayed because he just… didn’t have anything left. But he did find her. And soon they had each other. He often found himself thinking about Ursa; and the guilt he buried to keep himself sane.
And then Chiyo was born; the physical manifestation of his new life as Chen, as Niwa’s other half. Years ago, Ozai waited for his children’s arrivals from a distance as Ursa was confined to special quarters. He was then fetched to be brought to his tired wife and a clean, swaddled baby, to which he was pleased; and yet Chen helped to guide his children into the world, containing his composure in contrast to the work and pain Niwa endured. His hands - the hands that shaped, raised and burned everything from the world around him, including his own children, now delivered new life.
It didn’t hit him until a moment passed after Chiyo’s birth and she hadn’t made a sound, until she finally began to wail. That sigh of relief Ozai breathed was something he hadn’t forgotten. The way Niwa smiled as she gathered up their daughter into her arms.
The way Ozai felt compelled, hours later, to take Chiyo outside; all clean and bundled and happy with her first meal, as he introduced her to her home; his own new home. How he told her it may not seem much at first, but it had welcomed him and had helped him become a new man, and now how Chiyo was just as welcome to this new home; as she was created by a land that brought two souls together.
“CHIYO!!” Ozai shouted, his heart feeling the strain with the passing of the hours full of worry.
But thankfully-
“Papa!”
Ozai whipped around, hearing the voice. He heard some foliage rustle, and clamoring out from behind a lilac bush was Chiyo as she ran into her father’s arms.
“Papa!!” She cried as Ozai fell to his knees. “Papa I’m sorry!”
Ozai kissed her forehead. “It’s alright, rosebud. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
“I didn’t m-mean for al-all of this to h-hap-ppen,” Chiyo sobbed. Ozai looked to her in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
A soft glow rounded the lilac bush, and Ozai saw the robed man from earlier, holding a lantern flickering with an eerie-white flame.
“You,” he said. The spirit smiled, approaching them before he knelt down.
“I’m happy that you’ve finally found each other. Chen, or… I suppose Ozai… I’m afraid I’m the one that may have set things into motion today,” he said. Ozai stared at him.
“Who are you?”
The robed spirit chuckled. “I’m actually an old acquaintance of Avatar Aang’s. My name is Khospa.”
Ozai’s jaw went slack. “You’re Niwa’s grandfather.”
Chiyo sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “I got scared earlier when that lady kept getting angry. I saw Grandpa Khospa in the woods and wanted to talk to someone. He always gives good advice,” she said, reaching out to let Khospa take her hand as he chuckled.
Ozai’s eyes widened.
“Always? Wait… this isn’t the first time you two have spoken?”
“No,” Chiyo said, finally smiling. “Grandpa Khospa helps me find mushrooms and the best berries! and told me I’d be a good big sister!”
Ozai remembered when Chiyo was a little less than optimistic when she learned about Katsu’s impending arrival; then one day she started proclaiming about how she was going to be the best big sister.
Khospa chuckled. “She can be a little spitfire at times, eh?”
Ozai smiled, unable to hold back his relief.
“But I think she’s ready to tell you something, right Chiyo?”
Ozai looked between the two, and Chiyo, nervous, held tight to Ozai’s collar as she leaned in to whisper something in his ear.
His slackened jaw almost hit the ground.
“You can… you can what?”
The sounds of a shriek pierced the night. Ozai jumped as he recalled what was happening outside of the forest.
Chiyo wriggled out of Ozai’s grip.
“Come on, Papa! We have to go help them! I have to help Aang!”
“I will help you find your way out,” Khospa said, holding his lantern out to guide them out of the forest. Chiyo eagerly held tight to her father’s hand as they rushed through the woods.
Ozai, looking down at Chiyo and her determination, now felt more strongly than ever about returning to find Zuko and Azula - and to ensure their safety.
Zuko who, as of right now, had been healed in full by Katara. He stood, still wobbly, but he no longer ached as he stretched in anticipation of fighting. In the distance, Aang and Azula had kept the spirit contained by dodging it’s advances and using their elements to herd it away from each other.
“We can’t just keep making it go in circles,” Katara said. “But Aang wants it to stay alive.”
“It’s angry. I just don’t know how we can quell it’s anger in a way that will satisfy it.”
“Zuko!”
Zuko and Katara jumped as Ozai caught up with them. They gasped as they saw Chiyo with him, and Zuko smiled. “Hey Chiyo! You’re back!”
Nodding, Chiyo looked out to the great spirit as it fought.
“Look, Chiyo,” Khospa said, pointing to Aang. “There he is. I think he could use your help.”
Nodding, Chiyo rushed forward much to Zuko and Azula’s horror as Ozai ran after her.
“Chiyo wait!” Zuko shouted.
“It’s not safe for you!” Katara insisted. “Ozai stop her!”
“I can’t,” Ozai said. “This has to happen.”
Chiyo approached the spirit, and Aang, floating above, watched in horror as the spirit caught her in its sights. It turned towards her, and Chiyo stood still, but not out of fear.
Zuko screamed at Ozai to intervene; Katara readied her waterbending-
But just as the spirit reeled a leg back to smash down upon Chiyo-
A gust of air rustled around her clothes, and she leapt into the air, high, high up… until she was face to face with Aang as the spirit’s claw came crashing into the ground.
Ozai watched, unbelieving, as his daughter took to the sky; Zuko and Katara’s shouts went silent.
Aang, wide-eyed watched this little girl hover for a moment as their wind currents collided. She smiled at him.
“You’re… You’re a…” Aang’s throat was dry.
“Avatar Aang!” Chiyo grinned. “My Grandpa Khospa says hi!”
“Khospa?” Aang echoed. He looked towards the entrance of the woods, where a figure stood with a lantern.
The memory of an Air Nomad, still struggling to get his tattoos, but was a beloved shepherd of young airbenders, came to his mind.
“Khospa?!”
“ENOUGH!” The spirit screamed. It reared back on it’s snake body to reach upwards, flailing it’s legs towards Aang and Chiyo, who fell back down to the ground. Aang caught himself, but Chiyo was poised to land - until Azula made a grab for her little sister, who knocked the wind out of the older princess as she slammed down. Chiyo looked to see Azula and she smiled nervously.
“Thanks, lady.”
Azula pushed her off without hesitation. “Just what we need, another cloud-brained airbender.”
With a screech, the spirit prepared to strike again, but Chiyo stood to join Aang as she poised herself against the beast.
“HOW DO YOU FEEL, LITTLE ONE? TO KNOW I WILL DECORATE THIS LAND WITH YOUR FLESH?!”
Chiyo didn’t let her nervousness invade her mind; she’d seen spirits before, but this was the angriest one she’d ever met.
She stepped forward, her hands clasped together. “Why are you mad?”
“I HAVE NO HOME. YOUR FATHER SAW TO THAT MANY YEARS AGO.”
Chiyo turned to look at Ozai, who closed his eyes out of shame.
“Papa, is that true?”
Ozai looked to her, and he nodded.
“It is true. This… isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever done. I’ve committed many wrongs. Against this spirit, the world… your brother and sister.”
Azula and Zuko looked to each other as Ozai spoke.
Chiyo turned back to the spirit. “What is it that you want?”
“YOUR HOME IN RETURN. WE SHALL CLEANSE THE LAND OF THOSE WHO LIVE HERE AND MAKE IT OUR OWN!”
“You don’t have to do that!” Chiyo begged. She stepped forward as Ozai and the others made grabs for her to not step too close. “If you need a home, we are more than willing to let you live on this land.”
“WE WANT VENGEANCE!”
“Your anger is justified! But I can’t let you harm my family, or anyone else. But I can let you choose to live here. I don’t want you to suffer; but I don’t want anyone else to suffer. Please?”
The spirit looked upon Chiyo; and without warning, it reeled back to strike down upon her with it’s piercing leg. The others shouted, ready to remove her, but Chiyo didn’t budge; and just as she was about to be skewered-
The claw halted, just inches from her face.
Chiyo reached out to touch the armored claw, and the spirit shuddered.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You’re safe here; you can make this place your home, and you’ll always be safe. I trust you.”
The spirit trembled.
Aang stepped forward. “You have my word. You have his word as well, right Ozai?”
The spirit looked to Ozai, as he looked an absolute wreck as he watched Chiyo’s actions; but he and the spirit locked eyes.
“My Niwa opened this land to me when I needed a home. I took yours away; I now invite you to stay here, and make this land your own; with one condition.”
“… And what is that?”
Ozai placed his hand on his daughter’s hair. “That if you find anyone that is lost, you protect them. Beyond that, you’ll find Khospa; he will be glad to keep you all company.”
The Spidersnake backed away, and upon multiple parts of it’s body, light began to shine. The spirit allowed itself to come apart, and countless streams of light burst into the air, descending down into the ground, where the battered earth regenerated. Grass regrew and flowers burst forth.
“Thank you… ” They heard the whispers of thousands of voices. “I will abide by your condition, so long as you keep your own promise, and maintain the earth around you.”
Ozai looked to Aang. “I promise.”
Aang closed his eyes, passing the message along in spirit; and a cool breeze rustled the trees, playing melodies from nearby windchimes.
****
Niwa watched Aang return her land to one piece as Katara redirected the water that rose with the slab of earth. Niwa then rushed forward, holding Katsu tight as she embraced Chiyo.
“Oh Chiyo! Sweetheart!” She cried out, pulling her daughter into a tight bearhug. Chiyo hugged her mother back, eager to return the embrace.
Ozai watched them, and he tried to not be obvious as he turned to look at Zuko and Azula. Zuko sat on the ground, exhausted after his injury as Azula was staring Niwa’s way. She made eye contact with her father, and Ozai could almost feel the searing heat of her glare; he turned back towards the family in front of him.
“Mama, we kind of invited some people to stay in the woods.”
Ozai chuckled. He knelt down and looked to Niwa. “Well… we both did. But Chiyo did most of the talking. All that spiritual Airbender stuff, you know?”
Niwa still couldn’t believe it. “My baby is an Airbender.”
Chiyo nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I was… kind of scared.”
Niwa held her daughter’s hands like lifelines. “Oh baby; I’m so sorry if there’s ever been anything I’ve done to make you scared about telling me this.”
Chiyo, however, shook her head. “It wasn’t you. I guess I just got scared about it in general; there aren’t a lot of Airbenders so I thought maybe something was wrong with me. But then I met Grandpa Khospa! He helped me, and he told me he was one too!”
Niwa’s jaw dropped. “You… you’ve seen Grandpa Khospa?”
“Yeah, and he’s real funny! He helped me stay safe from the spirits today.”
Niwa looked up to Ozai, and he nodded that she was telling the truth.
“He’s actually over there, talking to Aang! They lived in the same temple!” Chiyo said, pointing towards the entrance of the forest. She could see Aang heading that way to greet Khospa. She couldn’t believe what she was looking at.
Ozai touched Niwa’s shoulder. “You should go see him.”
Niwa’s eyes glossed over, and she held Katsu tight before Ozai gently relinquished her grip of the boy, cradling him against his chest. Ozai stroked her cheek, and she answered with a touch on his hand, still looking towards the spirit of her grandfather.
“Go on,” Ozai whispered, finally convincing her to go.
As Niwa slowly made her way over, she could see Aang and Khospa strike up their conversation.
“It’s good to see you, Aang.”
With happy, but tearful eyes, Aang looked upon Khospa, unable to believe he was with one of his brethren.
“Khospa; I can’t believe it! But… you’re so old… I mean you’re- you’re dead but… look how old you got!”
Khospa laughed a raspy, hearty chuckle. “I… I was lucky. I managed to escape just as we noticed the Fire Nation descending upon us. I was using my glider at the time, so I had a means to escape. I tried to get my bison, Kooka… but she had been…” Khospa shook his head, overcome with emotion.
Aang’s heart dropped, remembering Kooka, a sweet, apple-driven bison, who was the sister of Appa’s mother. She was beloved by weavers as her fur was one of the softest of all of the bison; her fluff was worn by countless Air Nomads.
Khospa cleared his throat and continued: “But… I was still able to escape. I hid in the Earth Kingdom and made a new life. I joined the army, but had to hide my Airbending, or risk being found by the Fire Nation. Unfortunately I lost one of my legs, and couldn’t fight anymore. That was when I met my wife, who’s family lived here and maintained this homestead. It used to be a whole community; but the war took it’s toll,” he sighed heavily, looking upon the still-beautiful land. “I took to the Spirit World before my death so I could be with this land, and my descendants.”
“I’m so sorry, Khospa. I shouldn’t have run away… I should have been there when the Fire Nation attacked.”
“Aang… I’m not sure there would have been much you could have done. You were so young, let alone untrained.”
“I could have done something!”
“And what if they’d killed you too? Then the world would have had to wait anyway for the Avatar to appear again; and with the way the Fire Nation ravaged the Water Tribes? Aang…”
Aang felt the warmth of Khospa’s ethereal hand rest on his shoulder.
“Aang, you may not be proud of it, and it may not have been a brave decision… but the decision you made saved the world. And you still stood to right your mistakes, and you put an end to what destroyed our people.”
Aang smiled, wiping his eyes.
“Thanks, Khospa.”
With an embrace, Aang felt so much of the guilt that he had been carrying begin to ease. He noticed Khospa look up; Aang turned to find Niwa approaching, wringing her hands together emotionally.
“Hi Grandpa,” she smiled. Khospa beamed.
“Hello, Rosebud.”
As they watched from the field, Chiyo found the courage to approach Zuko and Azula.
“Are you feeling better, Zuko?” Chiyo asked.
Zuko nodded, patting her head. “Yeah. I think I’ll make it.”
Chiyo looked up to Azula, who held her hand out to stop her. “If you want to ask me anything, you will call me Azula. Not lady.”
Zuko leaned forward, whispering to Chiyo. “Call her lady, I’ll vouch for you.”
Chiyo giggled, but she simply regarded Azula with big, stormy eyes. “I… I heard you’re my brother and sister.”
Zuko nodded. Azula made a hand gesture indicating that ‘maybe’ they were siblings as she wobbled her outstretched hand.
“I’m so excited!” Chiyo danced. “I thought all I had was stinky Katsu.”
Azula smirked. “Funny; I used to think the same thing about Zuzu; but then we found out we have another sister on our mom’s side, and now I can actually say I have a favorite sibling,” she grinned.
“Hey!” Zuko feigned a hurt tone. “I’m not stinky.”
“Uhh that time we fought each other after you’d been on the run for weeks? Nasty; you smelled like Uncle”
“And who’s fault was that?!” Zuko shouted. Azula looked over her nails.
“Hmm; couldn’t have been mine.”
Chiyo’s eyes lit up further. “Uncle? I have an uncle?”
Zuko nodded. “You sure do.”
Azula shrugged. “He’s alright.”
“Uhh, he’s the best?” Zuko responded. Azula wrinkled her nose.
“Eh, he’s okay.”
Chiyo turned around. “Papa! I have an uncle!!”
Ozai’s face winced as he wondered what else the kids were telling Chiyo… but who was he to stop them from telling her everything he’d held from her? He turned to see Niwa speaking to Khospa, and he hoped their conversation was everything she’d needed after being alone for so long.
Ozai looked to Katsu in his arms as the babe slumbered. He knew it was time to tell Niwa everything. To finally confront the name he’d abandoned to save his own hide years ago. He owed it to her, and to his children. To all of his children.
Niwa gave the final blessing for the new spirits that had taken refuge in her forest. She told Khospa that, to let them know she was thinking about them, she would make a birdcall he had taught her when she was little. As she gave the signal a trial run, whistling out a perfect mimic of a songbird, the forest slowly erupted into a chorus of whistles.
Khospa hugged his granddaughter. “I won’t be far, Rosebud. And I will continue to keep watch over Chiyo and Katsu, and any other grandchildren you might bless me with.”
Niwa didn’t want the embrace to end, but before she could say another goodbye, she realized he was gone. Niwa laughed, wiping her eyes as Aang touched her shoulder. “He hasn’t changed.”
She and Aang returned to the crew as he checked in with Katara, who was visibly exhausted, as well as the others.
“You’re all welcome to stay with us for the night. I have plenty of hay for Appa, and my house has enough rooms for everyone.”
Aang and Katara were eager to take her up on the offer; Zuko nodded as well, but Azula seemed… less than excited. But she finally relented.
As she ensured everyone had a good meal (unfortunately the jackalope meal had to be discarded after being left out for hours), Niwa escorted everyone to their rooms and tucked Chiyo into bed.
“Goodnight, Rosebud,” she whispered as Chiyo was quick to fall asleep after the day’s trials. Niwa kissed her daughter’s forehead as Ozai did the same, holding onto Katsu as he looked upon her. He had so many racing thoughts; for so long he had wondered if she might have become a Firebender. But instead, something he never could have dreamed had happened.
Ozai felt Niwa’s hand on his back, and he stood to join her as they retired back to their room.
So many events that day… the two simply changed into sleepwear and Niwa tended to Katsu, settling him into the crib set up in front of the bed.
“Goodnight, Starshine,” she whispered. Ozai sat on the bed, still too wired to close his tired eyes. Niwa joined him, sitting back as she sighed. A few moments of silence passed before Niwa spoke.
“Okay. I need to know,” she began. Ozai, nervous, looked her way. “What am I calling you from now on? Chen or Ozai?”
Chen was the man that Niwa had met and fallen in love with. But he no longer existed; he was a farce to begin with. Ozai was the man that Chen replaced in Ozai’s own mind - but Ozai was still alive - both physically and in the memories of his older children, the Avatar, and the world.
Chen never existed. Ozai remains; despite how much Ozai himself wishes he could move on. But he already has, but that didn’t mean his children had moved on. Their pain was still evident. The pain of so many was now evident after an entire colony of spirits had found him and were willing to destroy everything that had brought out the best in him.
He sighed and took Niwa’s hand.
“… Ozai. My name is Ozai. I’m sorry.”
Niwa shook her head at him, finding a smile through the situation.
“Whether you’re Ozai or you’re Chen; if you plan on remaining here as though nothing happened today… I will call you whatever you wish.”
“Then just call me ‘my love’,” he grinned, pulling Niwa closer as she laughed.
“Let’s not get too embarrassing,” she said as Ozai leaned in to kiss her.
The night passed into a bright, sparkling morning. A blue, cloudless sky that lit the dewy earth in a twinkling, golden glow. A cool breeze wafted through the home, and Aang was the first to awaken. He decided to tiptoe outside to perform some katas, and as he passed Chiyo’s room, he noticed her peeking out of her doorway.
He smiled and motioned for her to join him. As Niwa woke up, she could hear the Avatar speaking outside. She looked out of her window to see Aang happily instructing some Airbending moves to Chiyo. She watched both of the realize they weren’t alone, and their forming bond was already unbreakable.
As the morning progressed, Zuko awoke as well, and he got dressed and prepared to potentially wake up Azula, but she was already awake, sitting on her bed just waiting.
“Are we leaving?” She asked. Zuko closed the door behind him.
“No, Niwa’s cooking breakfas-”
“I’m not eating.”
“Azula.”
“I’m not spending any time with them. I will leave this room when we leave this prison.”
“It isn’t a prison.”
“I don’t care,” Azula grumbled.
“Chiyo will want to say goodbye,”
“She can come in here and do it.”
Zuko sighed. “Alright. I can’t make you do anything.”
“Exactly.”
Breakfast was cooked and served; Niwa did her best to cater to Aang’s needs as a vegetarian. Chiyo asked reluctantly if she had to let go of meat to be an Airbender, to which Aang fumbled as he looked into her sad gray eyes.
“I mean… if you’re an Airbender already and you’ve been eating meat I don’t see why you should HAVE to give it up. It’s all personal preference!”
Chiyo’s eyes happily lit back up and she eagerly tore into her pig-chicken slice much to Aang’s dismay.
Notably absent from the table was Ozai, along with Azula.
“Where’s Papa?” Chiyo asked Niwa.
“Papa is… he’s watching Katsu while we eat. Katsu’s been… a little fussy and he doesn’t want to… to interrupt breakfast.”
Aang chewed his food slowly, looking at Zuko, who could also tell something was amiss.
“Oh okay,” Chiyo accepted as she chomped into her rice. Niwa looked up at Zuko, signaling that wasn’t exactly the case. As they concluded breakfast, and Niwa insisted everyone leave their dishes for her to clean, she escorted Zuko up to Azula’s with a tray of food for the princess.
“I hope this is alright,” Niwa said. “But… I want to have a talk with you two before you leave.”
Azula listened to the door open, and she bristled as she saw Niwa at the door. Even with a tray full of food, she struggled to trust the woman. Zuko entered behind her, and Niwa placed the tray at Azula’s feet before she knelt down to the floor.
“… There’s something I want to talk to you two about.”
Azula was quick to try and stand, but Zuko urged her to sit back down. Grumbling, she did so, and Niwa looked to the siblings in earnest.
“… Ozai told me everything this morning.”
Zuko looked to his sister. “Everything? As in…”
“As in the case of your mother, Ursa. About… About Azulon. About his death. About what Azulon wanted done to you, Zuko. About your Agni Kai, about your banishment. About you, Azula, and his beliefs that you were superior to Zuko, because Zuko, you reminded Ozai so much of himself. He told me everything.”
Zuko gripped at the fabric over his pants with a trembling hand. Azula frowned and she stood once more.
“If he wanted to say something he should say it TO us!”
“Azula, wait please!” Niwa stood to grab Azula’s hand, but Azula quickly yanked herself from the woman’s grip. “I promise you; this isn’t me trying to pass information along. This is me asking you if all of this is true.”
Zuko blinked. “Wh-why?”
Niwa held herself. “I want there to be honesty. Even if I have to go behind his back to make sure it’s there. If what he’s told me is wrong, then… I won’t keep him here. But if what he’s told me is true…”
“Don’t tell me you’d keep him anyway after everything he’s told you,” Azula sneered. Niwa held herself tighter.
“I would, Azula. I would because he’s not hiding it anymore. He’s not running. He told me this to make sure there were no secrets anymore. He told me all of that this morning. There’s more, too, if you want me to go further in depth. The Phoenix King? Lashing out at Zuko on the Day of Black Sun? Sending you after Zuko multiple times?” She ended the questions looking at Azula.
Zuko nodded. “Those are all correct.”
Azula turned away. Niwa approached her slowly.
“… I know you were both affected by him; terribly. And I know what it must look like to see someone give a chance to a man who didn’t give one to either of you. But… if there’s anything I can promise you in full honesty: He’s not that man anymore.”
“That doesn’t mean a damn thing,” Azula hissed, turning to face Niwa.
“And I understand that as well. But I come here both asking for your truth, and to let you know his own that he entrusted me with. That he’s not running. That… he hates what he did, but he knows you both have every right to not want to see him. Every right to hate him. There are no words for what has been done. But he does see now. And he is sorry.”
Niwa looked to Zuko, her hands folded in a gentle plea. “He’s sorry to both of you. I know that only goes so far coming from me. But… I wanted you both to know he’s stopped hiding. And if you wanted to confront him yourself, he won’t run. If you need to speak to him, he will be there.”
Niwa placed a hand on Azula’s shoulder, catching the princess’ attention as she turned, trying to force her trembling lips to become still.
“And I will be there too,” Niwa said, reaching forward to wipe a tear from Azula’s cheek.
Azula stared; emotional and still seething, but she didn’t retract herself from Niwa’s hand until she finally took a deep breath and returned to her bed, plopping down to grab the bowl of rice.
Niwa looked to Zuko, who nodded to her; and Niwa smiled before turning to leave.
As Aang saddled up Appa, Niwa stepped outside to watch Chiyo play with the bison.
“Mom! Mom!! Can I get a bison?? Please please PLLEEAAASSE?“ She begged. Niwa laughed as Chiyo bounded into her arms.
"We’ll talk to Papa about it. That is… if there are any other bison out there…”
Aang tightened Appa’s saddle. “We’ve seen clues of colonies! There have to be more out there.”
As Aang helped Katara and Zuko toss the packs into the saddle, Azula joined them outside. She passed Niwa, but not before hesitatingly reaching out to touch her shoulder.
“… Good meal,” she said before stepping away. Niwa beamed, finally getting something positive from the princess.
Back at the door of the home, Ozai stepped out. He lingered back as everyone said their goodbyes until Chiyo noticed him.
“Papa! Come say goodbye!”
Niwa turned to see Ozai; he faltered, but didn’t want to fail Chiyo; nor the promises he’d made to Niwa that morning. Azula stood rigid. Zuko was at ease as he watched his father approach.
“Fire Lord Zuko,” Ozai began. “Princess Azula. You are always welcome at our home.”
“Thank you,” Zuko said. Ozai looked to Azula, unsure of what to say as she refused to look at him.
Ozai continued. “… Have a safe trip home. Give your mother my regards.”
More silence. Ozai stepped back a bit to signal they were free to go.
Zuko looked down to Chiyo, who seemed to become confused at the cold nature of their interaction.
Anger begets more anger; and Zuko knew where he stood in that cycle. He remembered doing his best to change and how he hoped to be accepted by others. He knew the pain of rejection on both sides.
He stepped forward.
Everyone watched as the Fire Lord reached in-
and embraced Ozai.
It was tight. It was suffocating. Much like everything they’d felt leading up to that moment.
Ozai felt his son’s arms hold him, his fingers digging at his back. He trembled, tears falling from his eyes.
Zuko as well couldn’t hide his own tears. His entire body screamed at him. Fear and anger and the still constant pain of rejection was still so loud in his mind; but he hadn’t feared his father in years; and despite the uncomfortable embrace, Zuko buried his face into his father’s shoulder.
Perhaps this was both the ultimate way to prove how much they both had grown, that Zuko no longer feared Ozai, and that Ozai could now possibly begin to accept his own shortcomings without fear of retribution. Zuko was not like his father… and Ozai didn’t have to be like his anymore. He’d already proven that.
Zuko pulled away from the hug, and the two looked to each other quickly before the Fire Lord turned towards Appa in silence.
Azula gaped at her brother as he tried to compose himself. She looked to her father, but couldn’t bear to look at him much longer. Instead, she walked over to Chiyo; pulling the flame-shaped hairpiece from her topknot.
“Hey… this is for you.”
Chiyo lit up. “Really?”
“Yeah. I want you to have it. You’re part of the Fire Nation Royal Family after all.”
Chiyo giggled, and she leaped forward to hug Azula so tightly. “I’m so glad I have a big sister.”
Azula fought her own tears, and she hugged Chiyo. “Don’t forget to write, okay kid?”
“I’ll write every week!” Chiyo answered. Azula ruffled her hair and she stood, looking to Niwa, who offered a smile to the princess. Azula gave a ghost of a smile back; but as she peered Ozai’s way… she just couldn’t look at him… but she struggled to leave.
“… Write a letter sometime. Maybe I’ll read it.”
Ozai sniffled. “Yeah. I will.”
“Just so you know I’ll probably burn the first few. But if you keep trying.. one of us is bound to read one.”
Ozai chuckled. “Then I guess I’ll just have to write every day.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I’m not promising,” Ozai said. Azula finally looked his way as he nodded to her. “I’m going to do it.”
Azula’s expression dared to falter. “I don’t forgive you.”
“I don’t want you to,” Ozai said.
“… Then… I guess that’s something we both have in common now.”
“Hey. It’s a start,” Ozai said, his voice rough as he subdued his emotions.
Azula lingered one more moment before she turned towards Appa and was helped up by Zuko.
Niwa held Ozai as they watched the bison take to the sky. She heard a coughing sob escape from Ozai’s chest as he watched, and Chiyo rushed forward to wave to the team.“
"Byeee!!” She called out. “I hope we have more fun when you visit again!!”
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I'll not write it in chronological order (because I don't have the energy nor the motivation to make it the plotted multichapter fic it deserves to be), but the dragon!Azula AU at least is a series on AO3 now:
I'll make a list with the entries in chronological order... one day;
this is more a "eventually Azutara" than "actually Azutara" series ('cause the main bulk is pre/during OG series timeline);
there'll be more than one dragon, but Azula's the main character so I named the series after her;
feel free to ask stuff about it because I'm obsessed with this AU and willing to gush about it.
#atla azula#atla#atla fanfic#azula fanfic#azutara#it's azutara brotp first befause Azula is a huge ass lizard when they meet#the dead dove belongs in another house of mine
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ATLA DnD AU
Aang: Protector Aasimar, Monk/Druid
Protector aasimar are charged by the powers of good to guard the weak, to strike at evil wherever it arises, and to stand vigilant against the darkness. From a young age, a protector aasimar receives advice and directives that urge to stand against evil.
Katara and Sokka: Sea Elves, Druid/Monk and Rogue/Fighter
Sea elves fell in love with the wild beauty of the ocean in the earliest days of the multiverse. While other elves traveled from realm to realm, sea elves navigated the currents and explored the waters of many worlds.
Suki: Hill Dwarf, Monk/Fighter
Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of fair play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.
Toph: Stout Halfling, Druid/Monk
Others form nomadic bands that travel constantly, lured by the open road and the wide horizon to discover the wonders of new lands and peoples.
...they are loyal to their friends, whether halfling or otherwise. They can display remarkable ferocity when their friends, families, or communities are threatened.
Zuko and Azula: Red Dragonborn, Fighter/Sorcerer and Rogue/Sorcerer
Born of dragons, as their name proclaims, the dragonborn walk proudly through a world that greets them with fearful incomprehension.
Some dragonborn are faithful servants to true dragons, others form the ranks of soldiers in great wars, and still others find themselves adrift, with no clear calling in life.
Mai: Shadar-Kai, Rogue/Fighter
Shadar-kai are the elves of the Shadowfell, originally drawn to that dread realm by the Raven Queen. Over the centuries, some of them have continued to serve her, while others have ventured into the Material Plane to forge their own destinies.
Once shadar-kai were Fey like the rest of their elven kin; now they exist in a state between life and death, thanks to being transformed by the Shadowfell’s grim energy.
Ty Lee: Tabaxi, Monk
Ultimate travelers, the inquisitive tabaxi rarely stay in one place for long. Their innate nature pushes them to leave no secrets uncovered, no treasures or legends lost.
#atla#Aang#Katara#Sokka#Suki#Toph#Zuko#Azula#Mai#Ty Lee#dnd#some of these choices were so easy#others took a frustrating amount of time#yes i am aware that being born with bending would tecnically make every bender at least part sorcerer but come on
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What do you think of the argument that Zuko continues to be arrogant and prideful in Book 3? I'm sure you've seen this post already, but I just wanted to know your thoughts on this. These are their words.
"Late Book 3.5 Zuko has changed significantly, but he can still be very arrogant, prideful, bitter, or hostile(some examples).* He continues to even sometimes put others down. He most certainly wasn’t obligated to let go of his bitterness toward those he felt hurt him. The idea that Ozai’s abuse someone made Zuko “less bitter” seems insane to me."
OP brought up the line in The Firebending Masters where Zuko says they can take them in a fight because they're the fire prince and the Avatar. Then they brought up Zuko saying he could take Azula in a fight in the finale to prove that he's still arrogant. Also, an example they used for the put others down thing is the infamous "air temple preschool" line. And to prove he's still violent and hostile, they pointed to him attacking Aang in the finale. I was taking a break from Azula stan insanity, but this argument pulled me out of retirement.
There's an obvious difference between excessive pride driven by a selfish need to be better than others and pride in oneself and one's accomplishments as a virtue.
And I would argue, and have argued before, that Zuko's arc has a lot to do with distinguishing that difference, as an abuse victim who was repeatedly told that his only sense of worth was tied to his abuser.
Zuko convincing Aang to see things through and that they could face whatever challenges might be coming is what allowed them to face the dragons. Without that, they would never have been judged worthy to begin with because they would have run away before they got the chance.
Getting rid of excessive pride and arrogance does not mean becoming a doormat. It also doesn't mean you stop being angry at people who deserve your anger. That's also a big lesson of "The Southern Raiders" that Katara learned as well. She didn't forgive her mother's murderer, and she'll never stop being angry at the man who killed her. And she doesn't need to do that. That was what Zuko was objecting to that Aang was preaching, and he knew that Katara didn't need to forgive because he himself knows what it's like to carry that anger which he probably will carry for the rest of his life. But that's okay. Ozai certainly deserves Zuko's anger and bitterness and probably more than that, because I'd argue that Zuko is way more forgiving than he deserves. The important thing is that Zuko is not directing that anger outward anymore at people who don't deserve it. It doesn't mean he never gets angry or he never disagrees with anyone about anything, it means that he's not trying to hurt himself or others anymore.
But trying to muddle that difference is a gaslighting technique that abusers use so I am not surprised that that person would use it.
But the thing about excessive pride is that it also makes you cowardly. Zuko has the confidence to face the dragons but he also knows that this means he has to submit himself to their judgment, and that is an inherently humbling experience that takes confidence to face. The same thing with fighting Azula, which, by the way, he is not doing for fun or his own benefit. He's doing it to save the world, and he's confident enough to know he can face her but humble enough to admit he can't do it on his own. These things show that he's learned how to find balance in his life, neither becoming overcome with excessive pride or becoming excessively timid or insecure, and that's a GOOD thing.
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ATLA/LOK Thoughts/Headcanons Pt.3
Part 1 Part 2
fire nation heavy
Zuko took over his mother's job of managing the household and the internal leadership that comes with the job. Since their was no lady, the job feel to the heir. Which means when Zuko was banished the job of managing the household went to Azula.
Ozai and Ursa pitted their children against each other.
Azula was a better sibling to Zuko then Zuko was to her
Ozai didn't accomplish anything in his seven years on the throne. His daughter beat the avatar and conquered Ba Sing Se. His son is one of the strongest swordsman in the world, ended the 100 yr war and brought back dragons. Meanwhile he's only feats of firebending in the show are with a magical over powering comet and him burning a 13 year old who wasn't resisting.
Watching her father burn her brother and then watching said brother get banished at 11 probably did more damage to her than anything else. Especially because the Zuko that left is not the Zuko that came back.
Emotions aren’t any easier for Zuko than they are for Azula. He’s prone to the same emotions (envy, anger, pride, etc.). The only reason he’s better at the ‘softer’ emotions is because you f his own stubbornness to be better than Azula at something and his Uncle.
Azula would have done well as Zuko's left hand when he was fire lord. Similarly Zuko would have done well as Azula's right hand.
Ursa wasn't any better a parent than Ozai. She was a better parent than Ozai to Zuko and Zuko alone. She was a horrible parent to Azula and projected hard on both her children.
Zuko isn't afraid of Azula he's hurt that she won't she his point of view. At the same time Azula's pissed that Zuko left again. And this time without a note that he left Mai.
Ursa deserved a better life with a non abusive husband, however she wasn't a good person. And I liked it better when she stayed missing.
Part 4
#ATLA#avatar the last airbender#atla zuko#atla azula#atla ozai#atla ursa#ursa critical#She willingly forgot her children#Unable to protect them from afar like she warned Ozai she would
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Jazmine Dragon
So I wanna set a little background first:
→ I do not own any of ATLA’s characters nor story, I just own my own characters and the thoughts on my mind, ofc I do not own all of you hot babes <3 I just wanted to write something that hopefully helped all of your hearts that love Zuko just as mine; some events are not exactly as portrayed on the show but ofc I had to shake things up as we need to get ourselves on the storyline, but I´mma try to make it the most organic as possible; any suggestions are accepted
→ Yes, there are going to be some nsfw chapters, but in all of them are going to be warnings so that no one under 18 reads them, also in those chapters all characters involved are going to be +18 yo <3
→ AAAAAND that's all, hope you all enjoy and hold on tight because this is a long story, if you don't like long storylines I’m sorry but this is more like a low heat cooking rather than a burning flame; I was not going to publish this, but I thought that maybe some of y’all may like it (or not), and even if no one reads this it is a good exercise as to not lose this story and remember it on the future.
Our story begins waaaaaay back, before Katara and Sokka found Aang on that giant iceberg.
Y/n L/n
→ Waterbender (some extra ‘cos we deserve it: healing, bloodbending)
→ Beautiful as you are baby, your beauty is a weapon <3
Mom
→ Waterbender from the North Pole tribe (some extra spice: healing)
→ Daughter of Pakku and Kanna (yes, gran gran herself haha, I had to adjust some family trees in order to make a more interesting story)
Dad (here is were the trouble begins)
→ Firebender, one of Ozai’s best generals (c’mon, we know where this is going, gotta add more drama) (extra: nothing, he’s already cool enough)
“Zuko, the banished prince, even when he was born he couldn't fulfill his father’s expectations on what a prince should look like, afraid of him not being a firebender, born without the fire nation spark on his eyes his father tried to kill him when he was born, and he could have gotten away with it if not for his mother that begged for his life… But not everything was bad, he also used to play with his uncle and cousin, as well as with his mother Ursa, his sister Azula and his father Ozai on Ember Island; once when he was about 3yo, Zuko saw a hawk that was about to attack a turtlecrab, he tried to save the small animal but soon realized that by saving him he condemned the hawk to starvation, he was confused as to what to do but before he could make his mind on this, a wave hoovered over him, his father saved him and he spend the rest of the day coughing water and on his mother arms”
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Meanwhile on the North Pole (*on your birth day, happy birthday Yn/Ln!)
Mom: What? What is it? Let me see her! *she said with pure happiness tears rolling down her eyes
Midfive: She’s a little girl *said with a soft tone on her voice while handing the baby to her mother
Mom: *grabs the baby in her arms with love and care* She’s beautiful… Look at her…
Dad: *stands by his wife and looks down to see the baby*
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Her dad thought that Y/n was going to be a great firebender…he certainly hoped so. When he fell for a water nation girl back in his youth and took her to the fire nation to marry her, he was scared as to what would happen if they had a child, he even told her that he never wanted to have kids of his own, that they could always adopt a little boy or girl from the colonies of the fire nation…but it finally happened, she got pregnant and even when he was scared, the joy was simply overwhelming. He didn't care if the baby turned out to be a waterbender or a firebender, or none (well, he preferred firebender or none), he sweard that he was going to protect that child with his life even… but as everything, it is easier said than done, and now here he stands, looking at a little baby girl with eyes as blue as the deep sea…definitely a child of the watertribe, he stands there looking at those pretty orbs that were so painfully beautiful, eyes that were going to see how the entire nation turns their back on her because of her origins, because of her roots… a girl that would even be noble on the water tribe of the north, but here, here she would be a problem..
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#atla zuko#prince zuko#fire lord zuko#avatar the last airbender#zuko x reader#reader insert#fire nation#avatar the way of water#atla
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My ATLA Fic Recs
“Scars”
When Azula shoots Iroh with lightning the gaang doesn’t let Zuko chase them away and insist on helping. It’s a catalyst for Zuko joining the gaang early and helping start a revolution with the fire nation people. I love the exploration of Zuko’s character in this fic and the world building with the nations all coming together I just love it sm
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28578189
“Mountains and Badgermolehills”
Zuko is captured by Zhao on suspicion of being the blue spirit and Sokka ends up being his cell neighbor. Sokka realizes Zuko is a good person with loyalties to the wrong person and tries to force feed him friendship and gets the gaang in on it later. Also the banter is top tier
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23832139
“Gossip Lord Zuko”
Post canon Fire Lord Zuko bonding with his staff and joining in on gossip night. I love Zuko helping the fire nation heal and being adored by his people
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25231696
“Tea and Cakes”
Autistic Zuko with an eating disorder and good shit about his relationships with other members of the gaang and his uncle
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157731
“Life in Eden”
Fire hazard siblings where Ursa ran interference with Azula and made sure she knew she loved her children equally, so Azula and Zuko have a better relationship and she ends up helping him. Love their dynamic in this
https://archiveofourown.org/works/25526884
“The Family You Choose”
The gaang as soulmates (I’d be surprised if u haven’t already read this fic tbh) but Zuko doesn’t know bc his grandfather and father burned his soul marks off when he was born. The explorations of everyone’s back stories is so good. I especially like how Suki’s got fleshed out, she deserves more attention from canon
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20383669
“Dragon of the Yuyan”
Zuko is adopted by the Yuyan archers at 13 after his dad dumps him in the earth kingdom to die. He joins the gaang when he breaks Aang out as the blue spirit. He’s also mute and uses sign language. His reunion with Iroh had me so emotional ;-;
https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582384
“Kitsungi”
Au where after being burned and left for dead in the earth kingdom, Zuko ends up as a bodyguard for the Beifong’s daughter. The Zuko and Toph sibling bonding is supreme
https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540144
“In the Soft Light”
The war ends early au. Zukka fic featuring moon spirit Sokka and fire nation ambassador Zuko
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26098987
“Salvage”
Hakoda adopts Zuko fic (I would also be surprised if anyone hadn’t read this fic with how popular it is) where Zuko goes from asshole cat prisoner to son boy. Also Hakoda is ready to uppercut Ozai
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116591
“The beginning of a new and brighter birth”
Amazing post canon Zuko fic abt healing the fire nation, has many wholesome and funny moments
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14921627
“Carry on For You”
Zukka pokemon au series, it’s so good. I esp love the attention given to abused Pokemon
https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599013
“Lessons in Tea Making”
Au where Zuko gave up on his father early on and converted his naval ship into a traveling tea shop. He’s trying to stay out of the war and in a hilarious twist the gaang is trying to capture him so he can teach Aang fire bending
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20648324
#atla#avatar#fic recs#atla fic recs#zuko#atla fanfic#fanfic#all of these are zuko centric akdhajdh#guess who my fav is lol#tumblr is mean and won’t let me link more than 10 fics#too bad you’re getting all 13
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weekly fic recs | 46
fandoms: aftg, atla, dc, mdzs
aftg
raze it to the ground by ilgaksu
It stops being about Neil entirely, and it starts being about this: Andrew is really, really fucking tired.
Dead of Night by NikNak22
(explicit) (graphic depictions of violence, rape/non-con)
It’s Kevin’s senior year at PSU, and things are…okay. But that changes when a single question from a nosy reporter sends his life spiraling. The descent is slow and maddening – memories and trauma from his past weave together to form the image of the man that stands there today. As Kevin begins to look around him with a new and critical eye, though, he’s no longer sure that man is who he wants to be.
So the question is - when faced with the truth, is it a case of Kevin finally getting what he deserves? Or is it about time to prove a lot of people (including himself) wrong?
Aka the fic that’s all about Kevin Day.
Clickbait by Frostandcoal
It is fitting that Josten is set to don a Dragons’ uniform. Like his new mascot, Josten is a fire-breathing, relentless, somewhat mythical creature whose very existence seems larger than life. And Minyard is the perfect manifestation of a Cyclone; an inescapable, violent maelstrom of unpredictability, where your only chance of survival is to hunker down and wait out the storm.
What happens when a dragon battles a force of nature? That’s what we’re all waiting to find out.
The media reacts to teammates-turned-rivals in the summer before Neil Josten’s first year in the pro’s.
Latchkey Child by vicariously kingly (pelted)
(underage)
The segment’s title declared EXY’S DARLINGS - WHERE WILL THEY GO FROM HERE? in a yellow banner along the television screen's bottom. It was a spotlight feature on where Kevin Day and Riko Moriyama were planning to go after their high school graduation. Of course they were expected to join the best, but a few reporters speculated on favoritism from the Raven’s coach if they signed on at Edgar Allan, and if that’d impact the Exy prodigies’ relationships with their potential teammates.
Usually his mother would box his ears for looking at anything Exy-related, but he changed the channel long before her shower finished, the black ink on a younger Day’s cheekbone haunting him worse than the date in the corner.
( Neil wakes up seven years younger, and, slowly, takes matters into his own hands. )
atla
While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor
High Sage Kenji blesses Fire Prince Zuko with the resilience of the reed, who bends in the wind and never breaks. When he is done, Fire Prince Ozai narrows his eyes, seemingly displeased by this blessing. But Kenji does not speak for himself; he is only a vessel.
-
The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple.
This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.
rabbitbrush by curiositykilled
There’s the sound of Katara groaning and Toph thumping Sokka with a rock, but Zuko’s chest is tight and cold. He can’t laugh at Sokka’s pun. He has to swallow to speak.
“Azula’s not going to prison.”
dc
An Internal Affair by nirejseki, robininthelabyrinth (nirejseki)
Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you're on his list, you're in serious trouble.
His next target?
A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who's developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.
Family You Made (Go Back, Do it Again) by JUBE514
He’s nine again– nine and new and knows so many things now so rather than try to go back–
He thinks he has the chance to make things right.
The bright blue trainers he puts on are a pair he hasn’t worn in forever, something he never thought about after he grew out of them (will grow out of?) a year from now, and sets off into the night and into the rain.
The plan he has in his brain is not really a plan, moreso just a couple of half thrown ideas and maybe five steps into building back the life he had in the most painless way he could.
Maybe, he thinks, maybe this plan can start off with the family he misses– because he’s sixty and most of them too injured or too old or too dead–
Call him selfish but he misses them. He would rather find them than get himself back into that lonely existence he called a life before he woke up at nine.
Dick makes do because that’s all he can do really.
-
Dick gets sent back in time, but don't worry, he's got this. (Probably)
mdzs
Lynchpin by ShanaStoryteller
He can’t get Jin Guangyao’s words out of his head.
If he’d only believed in Wei Wuxian, if he’d only been willing to stand up for him, could it all have been avoided?
Bend by ana_cp
(explicit)
Wei Ying does not have a crush on Lan Zhan anymore. Those feelings have been gone for a long time. He's over Lan Zhan. He is.
Deep down, he knows they'll never be compatible in a relationship. Even though Lan Zhan is gay. Even though Lan Zhan is also into BDSM. Because Lan Zhan is a Dom.
And so is he.
-
or, Wei Ying makes some very wrong assumptions about Lan Zhan's preferences, finds out just how far from the truth he is, and immediately makes a plan to fix it.
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Skin & Scale (Part 1)
So the survey results are in and making something of the dragon Azula fic won. So here’s the first part of that! It’s a combo of Dragon Skin and The Dragon’s Child. This first chapter is going to be very familiar as it is an updated and extended version of Dragon’s Child.
Summary: Some time ago, Ozai and Ursa stole a dragon egg in a quest for Ozai to have a perfect heir. Through the help of dark spirits, that little hatchling became a human child. They named her Azula.
“We’re almost there.” The man hisses. The woman next to him remains silent. She is still wholly unsure of the entire endeavor. “We just have to cross the main chamber.” The light of his torch throws shadows across the cave walls. Shadows that put a chill in the woman’s soul and lifts the hairs on her neck. She swears that she can hear the groans and growls of the dragons.
The egg cradled in her arms feels that much heavier.
It is such a pretty thing, this precious thing that she holds. The egg is mostly gold with a few brilliant cracks of blue and splatters of turquoise chips. If she didn’t know any better she would say that it was a sea serpent egg that she is holding rather than a dragon egg.
“We can’t just take it.” She says.
“We can and we will.” The man snaps. “Now quiet down before they awaken.”
She decides not to tell him that his single sentence carried enough volume to wake a dragon three caves over. She clutches the egg tighter, it’s rough surface nicks her skin like thorns. “I don’t want to go through with this. We can still return it…”
“No.” He replies through gritted teeth. “This is the only way that we will get what we want...what our Nation deserves.”
They step into the light.
The woman tosses a final look at the cave.
Not a dragon to be seen or heard.
There is a part of her that wishes that there were one.
Some outside force that can coerce them into saving themselves from their own foolishness. From getting themselves into something that is far beyond what they can reasonably handle.
.oOo.
Zuko claws at his hairline. On days like these, he is more than half inclined to take Azula up on her offer. He can hand the crown over to her and enjoy his newfound leisure time. With several years of recovery, he feels as though she’d fit the throne well. Much better than he can and she would probably enjoy it much better than he does. She has the know how and the leadership skills for it, even if her compassion and diplomacy can be somewhat lacking. But he is committed. He made a promise to himself and his nation and he intends to be the best leader that he can be.
Azula lingers in the room waiting for something to do, but until now, things have been quiet. There are no riots, no terrorists, no skirmishes to break up and so the princess is horribly bored. She wanders over to her brother and rests her elbows on his desk, deliberately obstructing his paperwork.
“Can you move? This is important.”
“I can.” She replies simply with a flippant and lazy wave of her hand.
He blinks at her. She blows at a tumble of locks that have fallen out of order and into her face.
“Oh, you actually want me to move.”
Zuko massages his temples. Although, he supposes that there is some humor in that faux innocence. It is infinitely better than her former, outright viciousness. He can work with a more playful, mischievous Azula.
“Then give me something to do, Zuzu. I am terribly bored.” Evidently, it seems like she grows bored very easily. Now that there are no fugitives to capture, no wars to fight. She never did do well with the mundane and the day to day. It isn’t as exciting for her.
“Read a book? Paint a picture? Feed the turtle-ducks?”
Azula scrunches her nose. “Give me something worthwhile to do.”
He really doesn’t know how to tell her that, these days, there aren’t really any truly impactful matters to attend, let alone life altering things. The sorts of thrills that keep her entertained and off of his growing pile of cumbersome paperwork.
“If you let me finish reading these, I might find something.” He knows that he is lying and she does too. Truth be told, he is getting rather bored for himself.
She moves her arms and stands behind him with her arms folded. He tries to ignore her as he flips through the pile for the letter detailing the most pressing problem. And just like that his thoughts begin to shift from that boredom and the prospect of a very lengthy era of nothing in particular to a growing sense that his days of peace are coming to an end. Amid the mundane tasks is a letter from a traveler. Each word brings him a step away from the prospect of prolonged relaxation and one step closer to another gradious adventure.
Zuko doesn’t know how much stock he should put into the letter or if he should put any at all. The letter’s sender isn’t exactly credible.
He digs it out of the pile and holds it out to Azula no less.
“What’s this?”
“Read it.”
He gives her a moment, watching her eyes sweep the page. “A joke.” She casts it aside. “Or a story.”
“Why would someone write me a story about dragons wanting to go to war with us?”
Azula shrugs. “Maybe they are as bored as I am.” She sniffs. “Spirits, I pity them if they are more bored than I am…” She twirls her bangs around her pointer and shifts her weight from one foot to the other.
“This is serious.”
Azula rolls her eyes. “Is it? The dragons are long dead.”
She is as offensively blunt as ever.
Zuko knits his brows. “No, not all of them.”
“I’ll humor you, Zuzu. But only because I really have nothing else to do right now. What do the last dragons want with us?”
“I guess that we’re going to have to meet with them and find out.”
“You mean that you will. I’ll stay here and make sure things stay in order.” He can see it on her face that she has been waiting for a chance to snag the crown, even if it’s only for a moment. “Don’t worry, I won’t destroy my own nation.”
“I need someone to go with me.”
“Send a messenger hawk to the Avatar, I’m sure that he’d be glad to go on another quest with you. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” She gives a nonchalant shrug. “Or I suppose that I can go…”
“You’re not going along.”
“You still don’t trust me.” She guesses flatly.
“No!” Zuko says quickly. “It’s not that. Believe it or not I actually kind of care about you…”
“I can take care of myself, Zuzu. I haven’t had…” she clears her throat, her face coloring ever so slightly. “A moment since the comet.”
Zuko taps his fingers upon the table. “We can go together. I can leave Mai in charge for a bit.” Her expression goes curiously blank. It is an expression that he has come to know as resignation, perhaps disappointment. “Alright, fine.” He caves with a groan. “You can stay here and watch over things. I’ll bring Aang with me to meet with the dragons.”
She gives him the faintest flash of a smile. “Crown?” She holds out her hand and wiggles her fingers.
He rolls his eyes and places it in her palm. “Just don’t change any laws or policies on me.”
“Not even the stupid ones?”
“N-not even the stupid ones!” He sputters.
.oOo.
That night she dreams of dragons. Flashes of red and blue scales and then gold and green. They are everywhere, pillaging the landscape with a power both awesome and fearsome. A power that she, even deep within the dreamscape, envies with all of her soul. She finds herself overtaken by a longing.
A desire to be in the sky with them, mighty and unstoppable. To have wings of her own and scales and claws.
The whole of the Fire Nation is consumed by its own element. The streets are a cacophony of screams. The pathways have a fine paint of blood, red as the banners that flap tattered and singed in the breeze. Claws swoop from the sky and steal lives away and she is in the middle of it all.
In the center of the chaos and the destruction.
Right in the center, at the heart of it all.
There is nothing but horror and hopelessness around her from all angles and vantage points. Screams and pleas and people shouting their disrepair as claws rake through them and fire rains upon them.
And yet all she feels is longing.
Deep and terrible longing.
.oOo.
Being the Fire Lord, she finds, is just as dull as pretty much everything else. Mostly it consists of sitting up straight, tall, and proud or–when she is alone and unmonitored–laying down and sitting in more ridiculous but significantly more comfortable positions.
Much of her time is spent watching her fire shift and dance while she waits for Lo and Li to give her some business to attend or some urgent matter to address. There are no urgent matters, nothing but more letters coming in from their mysterious traveler. She doesn’t find these particularly exciting anymore; there is only so much, ‘we’re going to die a scaly, fiery death’ that she can read before her eyes gloss over and the words lose their impact.
Azula lays back, clasping her hands atop her sternum and groans to herself; she should have just taken Zuzu up on his offer to let him talk to the dragons. But no, she just had to get a taste of the throne, of what she could have had. She supposes that she is somewhat grateful–at least now she knows that she can stop mourning what could have been.
Evidently, what could have been is completely unsatisfactory and the more time she spends beneath the weight of the crown the less she can see herself wearing it for good. As much as she hates to admit it, Zuko, Uncle, Aang…all of them–they were right. She very much does need to figure out just what she wants and it isn’t this crown.
She needs something that feels fulfilling and exciting. Something that can put her talents to good use. Something that doesn’t also leave her with a sense of longing, something that doesn’t make her feel bound and chained.
In wearing the crown she begins to consider that it probably has more control over she and her life than she does of it. And she can’t imagine that it is any different for Zuzu if his drab expressions are anything to go by.
She taps her fingers against her sternum.
The ceiling above with its golden reliefs shimmers above her. The metallic dragons coil and uncoil, having more fun than she ever can and they are only carefully sculpted depictions.
Azula sighs.
The dragons seem to reach down to her with their golden claws. And, just because no one else is around, she finds herself extending her hand to the ceiling.
For a moment she can pretend like her warm hand is touching its cold claws.
The fire around her dances, blazing a brilliant blue.
Azula closes her eyes, feels the heat on her face.
She wants to be close to that heat. Wants to feel the fire in her belly stir and sear. She wants to hold more power and fire than her own petite body could possibly allow. Sometimes she feels fragile and delicate; her skin is so soft and her frame is so slight.
Sometimes she feels like the things inside of her are much larger than her body.
Sometimes she feels like her mind has outgrown it.
And maybe that is why she gets so bored so easily, why she always has to chase that thrill, that rush.
Maybe that is what drives her mind to such dark and frightening places. Maybe it is not meant to be contained.
Maybe it was meant for something bigger.
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Considering Iroh holding onto Lu ten’s portrait; I wonder if it was lost when he was apprehended by Azula and the Dai Li and taken to the Fire Nation.
It’s a miracle the picture looks as good as it does in Tales of Ba Sing Se, all things considered; so what happened when he was arrested? Was it on his person and taken from him? Was it left back at the Jasmine Dragon/his apartment?
now I have the idea of what if it was one of the acts of kindness Azula gave to her uncle when he was trapped and the Dai Li showed her the possessions he kept on his person? She sees the portrait of her cousin and sighs, telling them to give it back to the old man.
Or does she keep it? ‘You don’t deserve the memory of the man who fought for your glory when this what you’ve turned into’ she says. ‘You shame your son.’
Or maybe she and Zuko take it, putting it somewhere in the palace to keep it safe. Lu Ten gave his life for the cause of the Fire Nation, regardless of his father’s shame, he still deserves to be memorialized in his own home.
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Theme and Character Development
Okay, so. Ranting time. How to find a theme, my personal run-down of what a theme is, character arc discussions, etc.
Theme is a pretty major part of a story. Even in plot-driven stories, there’s gonna be some underlying theme or lesson that an author is trying to show to an audience, even if it’s unintentional. The most basic good vs. evil, totally plot driven story will still have a theme...good vs. evil. Which is vague. But it’s enough, technically speaking, to be classified as a theme.
Stories are built to convey meaning, as well as to entertain. It’s totally fine if you put the majority of your focus on developing interesting and unique plots and characters, because that’s what’s going to hold your readers’ attention.
But your story will carry the most meaning for both you and your readers if you give your characters arcs and have a theme running through your story.
What is a theme?
The simplest way of explaining a theme that I’ve found:
The theme is the lesson or idea you’re trying to teach an audience through character development and change, without being preachy.
If all the characters are obnoxious, perfect angels who talk way too much about love and joy and sunflowers, you’ll probably just end up annoying readers. And, we don’t want to be too on the nose with it. Often, characters won’t even be able to identify their own issues and what they need to fix, but the plot will provide them with a good opportunity for them to take matters into their own hands and fix it (or make it worse, if you want to write a negative arc).
How to find your theme?
Pick whatever lesson or idea you want your audience to see. If you have a few ideas, write ‘em all down and roll with one, or even multiple if you want to tackle that.
Pick something you’re passionate about, you feel like you could improve on, you want others to come to understand, whatever you want.
Positive, negative, and flat arcs
For example, a theme could be standing up for yourself. You could have a main character who lets themselves get pushed around a lot, and through character arcs and the magical plot, they come out better and learn how to stand up for themselves. That’s a positive arc. Goes in bad, comes out better.
In How To Train Your Dragon, Hiccup learns to let go of what others expect of him, and to do what he believes is right. He blatantly disobeys his father, whom he desperately wants to please, all for the sake of doing what he believes is right. The dragons don’t deserve to die, and Hiccup learns to stand up for that.
Or, as a negative arc, a theme could be standing up for and defending yourself, but the character could, through the events of the plot, become so afraid of being hurt again that they take self-defense too far and turn to “the dark side.” Negative arc. Goes in bad or good, depending on your story, and comes out worse.
I would say Azula from The Last Airbender is a pretty good one here. She’s the perfect princess. Talented. Smart. Beautiful. She has her father’s approval, and he literally crowned her as the new Fire Lord. But it’s not enough for her. The emotional abuse has left her permanently scarred, and she can’t take it anymore. She loses her sanity and is defeated. No matter how many terrible choices she’s made, the audience still feels pity for her because of her sympathetic background.
You’ve also got flat arcs, which are less focused on personal growth within the character and more on the events around them. The character’s morals and ideas don’t shift much over the course of the story.
Basically, it often results in boring characters. Everybody likes to see their characters change, and flat arcs just don’t do it for me most of the time.
Character arcs can be as complicated or as simple as you want.
When it comes to character arcs getting complicated, that’s...the plot. So, your arc can be as simple as the plot, or it can be as complicated as the plot. They go hand-in-hand.
So if you want a simple, clear-cut character arc and a nicely packaged theme, you can keep the plot simple. Or you can make it complicated if that’s your cup of tea.
Simple. Does. Not. Mean. Boring.
If your characters are good and have interesting arcs, trust me. It won’t be a boring story. Look at Pride and Prejudice. I have no idea who first said it, but “it’s basically just a bunch of people going to each others’ houses.” It’s true. But the characters are interesting and have good arcs, and you root for them no matter how boring the exterior plot may seem.
How to know if your character has a good arc?
Compare your character at the start to how they are at the end. Have they changed in any way, either growing as a character or becoming worse in some way? Character arc. Boom. That’s it.
How to avoid being too on the nose while trying to write your theme?
Show your theme. Don’t tell it.
And story structure! We want to see a character at a low point in a story, the disaster right before the climax, or perhaps they’re offered everything they ever thought they wanted. This moment tests them to the extreme, and they have to make the choice to change in some way, either negatively or positively.
The character makes the realization and has to pick themselves up and defeat the antagonistic force in the story, whatever it may consist of, or perhaps join the antagonist force if the arc is negative?
Get creative with it.
This way, the audience gets to see the theme, the lesson, the thing the character learned, and you don’t have to be preachy. By watching that character go through everything they’ve gone through, we can see the change and learn with them.
And even if the audience can’t see the arc clearly, they know something is there. They know something about this character has changed, even if they can’t put their finger on it.
I’m not saying you should be super ambiguous with theme, but it’s okay if it’s not the clearest thing ever. The audience will still appreciate it, and those who want to can dig deeper into an analysis of the character.
#writing#writing tips#characters#oc#character arcs#writing tips and tricks#writing advice#writing reference#writing ref#writing chaos#writeblr#writing side of tumblr#arcs#positive arcs#negative arcs#flat arcs#story theme#theme#ahhh#screams#writing is a beautiful process
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One of my little subprojects on the forthcoming second book of my Avatar Azula AU Cinder is an OC that I’ve modeled off some of the fanon misconceptions of Azula, to serve as a foil to her. I know OCs can raise people’s hackles when they play a major part of a plot, but this will I think be really good if I can nail it.
Because fanon Azula exists to be hated, something in no small part contributed to by the bungling efforts of the show runners and Gene Yang in post-ATLA content. Because I do not think that the power-hungry social climber that people think Azula is a character that doesn’t deserve sympathy.
I’ve named the OC Zeisan, after Sozin’s sister. She is the only daughter of a cadet branch of the Fire Nation royal house descended from her namesake, and this would make her Zuko and Azula’s third cousin.
Her father’s ambitions have born fruit in his very capable daughter, who has managed to thrive in a male dominated world on her wit, social skills and prodigious firebending ability. Her fire might not burn blue, but she is nonetheless incredibly talented and skilled. But unlike Azula, who has been molded in a very masculine way, Zeisan the Younger has been groomed to be the very image of a courtly lady, to use her “feminine wiles” to advance the position of her house.
Her father’s ambition is to one-day betroth Zeisan to Zuko, to rejoin his house to the main branch, to become his son-in-law’s chancellor, especially should something...unfortunate...happen to Ozai.
I’m sure that might raise some incest hackles with you, but that sort of dynasticism is not only very common, third cousins are pretty close to perfect strangers. And while her uncanny resemblance is going to be unnerving to Zuko in particular, she’s also an invaluable ally in the quest his father will give him (spoilers but not really) to bring his traitorous sister down.
And yes, this will assemble an awkward love rhombus between Zuko, Mai, Azula and Zeisan, because the danger of trying to seduce someone is that you might actually catch real feelings. Both Zeisan and Azula are girls who have been creatures of their father’s ambitions and the emotional and even physical abuse that comes with that.
Of course, the difficulty is that there’s the pitfall of the Orientalist “dragon lady” trope, but I think the key to any thing that seems problematic on face is whether the character is allowed to develop or express an internality behind their actions, that they have desires and wants of their own. And I will state outright that I have no intentions of her to have a tragic, awful end. My perspective has always been that compassion is never wrong, and Azula’s main arc in the fic so far has been learning compassion, not through suffering, but through the compassion that others show to her or that she witnesses. I mean, she’s always going to be unfettered--Avatar or not she’s still Azula. But something of that Nitzschean concept of compassion unhindered by sentimentality seems like an appropriate stance for the Avatar to take.
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Get asked gamed you have so many fics I like (that i never realised were yours until much later) so I'm just gonna take a whole bunch of bits for Their Dragon because I reread it constantly
Gem took a deep breath, giving a weak smile. It was really a demon she needed to worry about, but she got the message. Pearl could protect her from anything.
This thoughts disappeared as there was a knock on the door. Gem bolted up and hid in the pantry, like the first day she was staying there when Pearl came back.
I absolutely love her deciding to be brave and then Immediately nopeing out of that decision when someone knocked (though it was definitely the smart thing to do, paranoia wins this time around)
Sausage hummed. "Either way, they're razing the earth just looking for the advisor! Apparently she was their Dragon in taking over Scott."
"Dragon?" Pearl questioned.
"It's a Mythland phrase," Sausage explained. "Usually Mythland royals will get warriors or assassins or magic users to do their dirty work and fear monger to their citizens so they don't have to. I don't have a Dragon, I'm strong and terrifying on my own!"
I love dragons. I love worldbuilding. Combine the two and you have me thinking about this bit for Ages. Especially with Sausage's boasting lol, I love him so much
Gem was shaking like a leaf as the rulers bid eachother bye.
Xornoth was concerned.
But Xornoth lied.
They never saw Gem like an equal, hell, even like a person she realizes more and more. You don't withhold food for a person for asking too many questions. You don't lock a person in a cell until you need them.
The realisation is just ✨amazing✨ and I want to give Gem a cookie and a hug so badlyy in this bit (luckily Pearl gives the hug in my place)
"Will we still be able to go look at the beanstalks?"
And finally, Gem actually getting to be a child like she deserves <3
Everyone go read the fic rn this is a threat
Yes! Gem my little anxious meow meow <3 this is the first time someone has knocked on Pearl's door probably since she got to Gilded Helanthia, as I think I mention Pearl is out helping her citizens most the time so no one really bothers to see if she's in her house.
I also think it's really fun that Pearl doesn't actually know what Gem is running from, and since she missed Xornoth's first meeting this is the first time she's realized just how much trouble she's in if Gem is found.
Yes! I was scrolling TV Tropes, and Dragons have always been one of my favorite character archetypes. A Dragon is exactly what I described here pretty much, think Azula from atla, how she's much more active than Ozai,but he's still the big bad.
So this was definetly a play on that, plus if Sausage doesn't boast a LITTLE, is it even Sausage? And if Mythland lore isn't a little morally questionable, is it even Mythland?
Yes! I think Gem has realized that Xornoth didn't see her like an equal after she asked if she could go to the Crystal Cliffs, but with Pearl? Who gives her safe passage and food and protection and comforts her when she's wigging out even though Gem hasn't really done anything for her?
And all the books she's read in Rivendell and Gilded Helanthia cluing her in that maybe the was she was raised wasn't exactly NORMAL (with Xornoth or with the Countess)... plus with five days of not being around Xornoth's lies? Yeah, the realization hit her like a truck on the third day. She hid in the cabinet the whole day nearly, Pearl sitting on the other side of the door trying to get her out.
Yes! Gem is unfortunately very curious, so just sitting in one house for nearly a week was absolutely tantalizing. And her only sources of information for years being whatever Xornoth tells her (filled with lies to gain sympathy points) and Rivendell libraries (very filtered and centered around Rivendell royalty, which can get pretty boring after a while), she's excited to learn everything she can.
And she has renewed confidence, especially in Pearl. If she's willing to lie to a fellow ruler for her? Especially someone who seemed like a close friend? Gem can face anything with Pearl.
I'm so glad you like it!
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Weird thing from "The Search" that I don't know what to do with:
Both Noren and Azula see themselves as the Dragon Emperor in Love Amongst the Dragons, the play within the comic. The Azula thing is pretty obvious. Zuko says he doesn't get why she always made him play the villain but the audience is supposed to understand that this is Azula misunderstanding the play and seeing herself as the humbled rightful heir to a powerful destiny that she feels she deserves and is being kept from by others, without understanding the play's message, which is that the Dragon Emperor needed to be humbled in order to embrace love.
The Noren thing is a little stranger and carries some bad implications. Ursa immediately recognizes Noren's name when she meets him as the name that the Dragon Emperor takes in human form, and by this time the reader is starting to suspect the truth that Ursa does not know yet, that Noren is really Ikem, with a new name and a new face.
Unlike with Azula, the comic wants us to see Noren/Ikem as a heroic character, so the parallel with the story-within-a-story is not meant to be a subversion, but more straightforward. Which means that the comic agrees with Noren seeing himself as the hero of the story, who was humbled and brought low but then gained love in the process.
Except that Ikem didn't start out in a high position. Ursa is the one who undergoes class changes, being slightly higher in status than Ikem and then going on to marry the Fire Lord, before eventually being banished, then finding love with Ikem, who has become Noren, as Noriko, who is neither a magistrate's daughter nor a fire lady, but a simple woman (who the comic also obnoxiously goes out its way more than once to tell us is not as pretty as Ursa.)
This implies that Ursa was the one who had to learn the lesson of humility. Which I don't like because of the way Ikem, in particular, treats her leaving to marry Ozai as if it were a choice she made, when the comic NEVER implies that she had a choice and, in fact, makes it very clear that she didn't have a choice at all.
This connection between Ikem and Azula both wrongfully seeing themselves as the hero of the story seems to also imply that Ikem was wrong to blame Ursa for being forced to marry Ozai, but the comic never condemns him for that and seems to agree with him.
The unfortunate implication is that Ursa had to be humbled by being abused by Ozai for ten years, be forced to bear his children while also watching them be abused, and then be forced to abandon them to her vile husband to accept Ikem's love. Even though she did love Ikem before, the comic oddly treats her being forced to marry Ozai like it's a sign that she didn't love him "enough" or just can't let her love Ikem when she is Ursa the magistrate's daughter who is above him. She has to be brought to her lowest point first. It's quite a misogynistic way to tell the story of a woman who, in the original series, is also a voiceless victim who gets blamed for not being a good enough mother by a startlingly large portion of the fandom through no actual fault of her own.
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ATLA - TDOBS Remake
Here’s a remake of the diologue between Zuko and Ozai in the tdobs episode but this time Azula, Mai and Ty Lee are there.
Azula: “Father, the invading enemies have been driven out, they are on the run but I know they’ll be back.”
Ozai: “Excellent but would you explain to me how the avatar survived Zuko’s attack?”
Zuko: “Let me explain this.”
Zuko shows up and surprises everyone.
Ozai: “Well? Explain yourself.”
Zuko: “First of all, in Ba Sing Se, it was Azula who took down the Avatar, not me.”
Ozai: “Why would she lie to me about that?”
Azula felt fear take over and was signaling Zuko to shut up.
Zuko: “Because of me.”
Ozai: “Hm, what are you talking about?”
Zuko: “She disobeyed your orders to hunt me down and imprison me, she gave me a second chance to fight with her and I accepted. She then asked me if I knew, in any way, that the avatar could still be alive. I lied to her and said ‘no,’ so she lied to you about what happened, that way if Aang did reveal he was alive, you’d think I’d be responsible and you’d cast me out again.”
Ozai turned to Azula with fury who looked back with sheer terror.
Ozai: “You really believe that I would be that stupid?”
Azula: “I...I can explain...”
Zuko: “She was doing what she thought was right, in her own way she was still loyal to you.”
Ozai: “The three of you begone. I’ll be sure to remind her of such importance.”
Zuko: “That's another thing. None of us are taking orders from you anymore.”
Ozai: “Excuse me?!”
Zuko: “I am going to speak my mind, and you are going to listen. For so long, Azula and I wanted you to love us, to accept us. We fought each other constantly for your favor, you pinned us against each other so that only one of us gets your approval. I thought it was my honor I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, to an Agni Kai. [Cuts to shot of Ozai, looking angered.] How could you possibly justify a duel with a child?”
Ozai: “It was to teach you respect!”
Azula “(nods) mmm-hmm.”
Zuko: “It was cruel, it was wrong and your the last person to judge Azula about lying!”
Ozai: “Then you’ve learned nothing.”
Zuko: “No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.”
Azula was left confused by his words, Mai rolled his eyes at Zuko for his sentiments and Ty Lee listened, eyes wide.
Ozai: “(Laughs) Your uncle has gotten to you, hasn’t he?”
Zuko: “Yes, he has.”
Mai: “Hold on, you said he was the last person to judge Azula about lying. What do you mean by that.”
Zuko: “Do any of you know the real reason how my mother and father met, what really happened Fire lord Sozin and Avatar Roku? Why Sozin wiped out the air nomads?”
Azula: “How many times do I gotta tell you, idiot? Mother was a noble woman and father took a liking to her. Fire lord Sozin famously waited for the comet, later renamed Sozin's Comet, and used its power to launch his full-scale invasion of the world. He did it to share this prosperity with the rest of the world. In our hands is the most successful empire in history. It was time we expanded it. He started with wiping out the barbaric military of the air nation army.”
Zuko: “You’re wrong, it’s all a lie. I know because I went to the dragon catacombs.”
Azula and Ty Lee gasped while Mai and Ozai raised their eyebrows with surprise.
Ty Lee: “But I thought it was forbidden to go their.”
Zuko: “It was forbidden so that none of us could find out (to Ozai) his dirty little secrets. Sozin knew Avatar Roku personally, they were close friends, about as inseparable as the three of you. He wanted Roku to join him in his delusional and ego-driven quest to conquer the world, Roku declined the offer and Sozin betrayed him, left him to die. The air nomads never had a military, they were peacemakers who were slaughtered by ambush. Innocent and defenseless men, women and children, gone. My parents never met by accident, grandfather Azulon arranged the whole thing because he and father found out that my mother’s grand father was avatar Roku himself.”
Azula and Ty Lee gasped again, Mai’s mouth dropped with shock. Ozai clutched his fists with fury.
Azula: “No! Your wrong!”
Ozai: “Since we’re letting the cat out of the bag now, don't you want to know what happened to your mother?”
Zuko: “What happened that night?”
Ozai: “My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son, and I was going to do it. Your mother found out and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne and she proposed a plan, a plan in which I would become Fire Lord and your life would be spared. Your mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished.”
Zuko: “So she’s alive?”
Ozai: “Perhaps.”
Zuko turns to Azula. A part of him feels the urge to smile.
Zuko: “You knew about this.”
Azula: “You said enough.”
Zuko: “You tried warning me, and when I never believed you, you told mom instead. You were helping me even from back then.”
Azula: “Shut up!”
Zuko: “I was wrong about you. Uncle was wrong about you.”
Azula: “Shut up!”
Zuko: “(Back to Ozai) After I leave here today, I'm gonna free Uncle Iroh from his prison and I'm gonna beg for his forgiveness. He's the one who's been a real father to me.”
Ozai: “Oh, that's just beautiful. And maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure.”
Zuko: “But I've come to an even more important decision. I'm going to join the Avatar and I'm going to help him defeat you.”
Azula was feeling heartbroken that Zuko was gonna leave her but she knew she couldn’t show it in front of Ozai. Zuko than turned to look at her, Mai and Ty Lee all at once.
Zuko: “You three can do the same.”
Mai: “What?”
Zuko: “None of you have to obey him anymore, you can make your own destiny. The avatar and his team will be hesitant to trust us but they know they’ll need all the help they can get after today. (To Azula) The avatar has yet to know firebending, with our knowledge, we can teach him so much.”
Mai: “Do you realize what you’re doing? What your asking us to do?”
Zuko: “I’m asking for your help to save our country.”
Mai: “Save it? You’re betraying our country!”
Zuko: “That’s not how I see it. I’m not gonna force you to help me. Are any of you with me or against me?”
Ozai looked at them, curious about their choice. Azula and Mai froze on what to do next, Ty Lee began moving towards Zuko.
Azula: “Ty Lee? What are you doing? Get back here at once!”
Ty Lee: “I’m sorry guys. I knew there was something wrong with this place the minute Zuko got kicked out, I guess that’s the real reason why I left for the circus the day after that incident.”
Mai noticed Ty Lee grab Zuko’s forearm. She lit her eyes, clutched her fist and gritted her teeth with raw fury and contempt.
Mai: “You...YOU!”
Mai was about to charge after them but Azula stopped her.
Ty Lee: “I don’t want to hurt you, so don’t try and stop me.”
Ozai: “Hmph. Since you're a couple of full-blown traitors now and you want me gone, I now realize that banishment is far too merciful a penalty for treason. Your penalties will be far steeper.”
Ozai began to lightningbend.
Zuko: “(To Ty Lee) Get back!”
Zuko moved towards Ozai.
Ty Lee: “No!”
Ozai fired a bolt at Zuko, Zuko slides back several feet from the impact of the bolt, yet manages to redirect it, sending it back to right in front of Ozai. In a split second, Ozai bent over backwards to dodge the bolt it hit the wall behind him.
Ty Lee: “Wow! How’d you do that?”
Zuko: “Long story, let’s go!”
Zuko grabbed Ty Lee’s wrist and made their escape.
Azula stomped on the floor with anger.
Azula: “Should we go after them, father?”
Ozai: “No, they have too much of a head start. But we’ll see them again soon.”
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